Market Assurance Programs

The Australian Johne’s Disease (JD) Market Assurance Programs (MAPs) are voluntary programs for producers to identify and promote their high assurance (low-risk) Johne’s disease status to clients.

Herds and flocks participating in the MAPs are not accredited as free of JD, but they have a lower risk of being infected compared to non-assessed herds and flocks.

Producers can minimise the spread of JD by sourcing replacement animals from herds or flocks in the MAP.

Participating herds or flocks are tested to determine their disease status and managed to reduce the risk of infection. Over 4 years, herds or flocks can progress from Monitored Negative 1 (MN1) through to Monitored Negative 3 (MN3) status, which is the highest level of assurance.

The longer a herd or flock is in the MAP and the higher the status, the greater the confidence that it is not infected.

Search for cattle, sheep, goats and alpacas in your region—and narrow the search results by breed, property, owner, stud, nearest town, or certificate number.

Livestock breeders can use MAPs to assure clients that their herds or flocks have been assessed for Johne’s disease using a nationally consistent method, and that their animals are being managed to protect them from Johne’s disease.

MAPs are designed to:

• provide a pool of low risk replacement animals for producers who want to reduce the risk of introducing infection, including properties restocking as part of a Property Disease Management Plan (PDMP)
• allow producers in high prevalence areas to demonstrate the low-risk status of their flocks or herds so they can sell replacement animals
• facilitate the movement of low-risk animals between properties.

Johne’s disease has a long incubation, usually of several years. Most infected animals do not show the typical signs of the disease during their lifetimes, although they may be shedding bacteria in faeces and infecting other animals.

Current tests have limited ability to detect individual animals infected with Johne’s disease, especially when they are young or have only been recently infected.

Most replacement animals are bought when they are young, when testing gives very little confidence that they are not infected.

The MAPs rely on repeat testing of large numbers of adult animals to determine the status of the herd or flock, and testing over several years can increase assurance.

Without an objective assessment like the MAP, vendors can give little assurance about the Johne’s status of their animals. A vendor may have no idea whether a herd or flock is infected and may continue to sell bulls and heifers or rams and ewes, putting clients at risk of infection.

1. Confirm that your local veterinarian is approved to supervise your property or find a MAP-approved vet on our database—narrow your search by name, jurisdiction or nearest town. Veterinarians offering MAP services are certified by the Chief Veterinary Officer in your state as meeting the set requirements.
2. Download the appropriate MAP manual  – info can be found under the relevant species heading below.
3. Arrange for the vet to complete a property risk assessment and initial Johne’s disease testing.
4. Provide a one-off joining fee of $100 for your veterinarian to submit with the ‘Status notification form’ to your state MAP coordinator. The fee is payable to your state department of primary industries.
5. Arrange audits as required by the MAP.

Note CattleMAP ceased on Nov 1st 2016.

Before agreeing to supervise a producer’s MAP, veterinarians must hold a certificate from the state’s Chief Veterinary Officer stating that they have met the requirements.

Online training is provided to veterinarians who want to participate in the MAPs.

• Read the MAP Veterinary Guidelines to better understand the role of vets in the MAPs.
• Undergo the APAV and MAP training
• Contact your state MAP coordinator to participate in the MAPs.

Annual review

Producers in a MAP need to arrange an annual review (internal audit) of their property and MAP-approved flock or herd. The supervising veterinarian completes the annual review and identifies ways for the producer to improve the implementation of the MAP.

External review

In recognition of the number of audits already successfully completed by many Market Assurance Program (MAP) producers, the high level of compliance demonstrated in the past 10 years and with the review of the National BJD Strategic Plan, the MAP Reference Group decided to postpone the next round of MAP external audits (July 2015).

This decision will be in place until further notice. The livestock councils will use this time to complete the review of their industry’s MAP. The SheepMAP review has already commenced.

• Download a list of quality auditors who have attended a MAP information session:  MAP auditors list updated Jan 2014.

Audit costs

The producer pays the cost of the audits.

Beef cattle and goat producers could apply for a partial rebate on the cost of the external review (audit) once every 3 years.

• Download the Audit rebate form for beef cattle and goats.
• Read the MAP auditor guidelines – June 2012.

Once enrolled in the MAP, commercial producers can use free farm gate signs and the MAP logo (e.g. in sales catalogues) to promote the Johne’s disease status of their herd or flock.

Read the Rules governing the use of the MAP logo and then complete the MAP logo authorisation form to apply for approval to use the MAP logo in your commercial operation.