The next ADK Goat Club meeting will be on Sunday, September 23, 2012 from 12pm - 3pm at Gail Huston's house in Bloomingdale. For directions please contact Rose Bartiss at rosesgoats(at)gmail.com. The theme of the meeting will be "Breeding: Preparation and Breeder Selection". We will discuss signs of
heat, best times to breed, how to pick a buck, how to pick a breeding
doe, what does need during pregnancy, buck health, etc.
This meeting will be a potluck lunch, so please bring a dish to pass
around. All are welcome to attend, even if you aren't planning to breed
your goats this fall. Please come and join us for some goat fun!
The ADK Goat Club will be at the Farm2Fork Fest in Saranac Lake at
Riverside Park this Saturday (9/1/12) from 9am - 2pm. We will have some of our
goat friends with us to help educate people about the caprine world. If
you haven't been to the Farm2Fork Fest before, I highly recommend it! It
is like a huge Farmer's Market with lots of fresh food to eat made by
local restaurants, free seminars on homesteading and food preparation,
and activities for the kids. Check it out at www.farm2forkfest.com.
Established in 2011 in order to bring together goat owners and goat enthusiasts from the Tri-Lakes and surrounding areas. The goal of the club is to be a place where people can share ideas, education, experiences, equipment and goats!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Friday, August 3, 2012
ADK Goat Club Breeding Program 2012
The Adirondack Goat Club is looking to create a list of local goat owners who are in need of goat breeding services in order to facilitate the match-up of sires and dams for the 2013 kidding season. If you have doe goats who are in need of stud services or buck goats available for stud, please contact me (Rose Bartiss). This list can also be used by buyers and sellers of breeding age goats who are looking to sell bucks and does for the 2012 breeding season. All agreements as to breeding services, stud fees, sale prices, etc. will be handled individually by the goat owners. The list is free to join.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Potter Park Zoo euthanizes goats for Johnes
Full text found here: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20120726/NEWS01/307260055/Potter-Park-Zoo-euthanizes-goats-after-devastating-disease?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE&gcheck=1&nclick_check=1
LANSING — An infectious disease that afflicts hooved animals prompted the Potter Park Zoo to euthanize its goat herd in May, the zoo confirmed Thursday.
The pygmy goats contracted Johne’s Disease, which causes a gradual thickening of the lining of the intestine and eventually leads to death, the zoo said. The animals were put down to keep them from suffering and to prevent the disease from spreading to other zoo animals, it said.
“Once we discovered they were infected, we basically had to put them to sleep so they would not suffer,” said Tara Harrison, the zoo’s veterinarian and curator. “We caught it early enough that none of the other animals in the zoo were infected.”
The six goats were in the petting zoo exhibit and have since been replaced by seven baby goats that came from a farm free of Johne’s disease, Harrison said.
Johne’s Disease, or mycobaterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP), is hard to detect and afflicts cattle, deer, sheep, goats and other ruminants, according to information on a Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine Web page.
Animals typically contract the disease at a young age, but don’t show symptoms for several years.
MAP is common in goats and cattle and is present in 60 to 70 percent of the state’s goat herds, Harrison said. It can take up to three months to determine whether an animal is infected using the most reliable test for the disease, she said.
Harrison said the zoo had been managing the problem over the past year, testing each animal individually and euthanizing them when they tested positive. Toward the end, all of the remaining goats tested positive and were put down, she said.
“We don’t like to euthanize animals, but it was the most humane thing to do,” the vet said. “It was the best thing to do for the goats and the best thing to do for all of the animals here at the zoo.”
The zoo took extraordinary measures to prevent the disease from spreading to other animals, scorching the earth to kill bacteria, replacing the top three inches of soil and disinfecting the barn with bleach, she said.
Also, staff who care for the goats do not care for any of the other hooved animal species, she said.
The zoo’s other hooved residents include the critically endangered black rhino, Bactrian camel, eastern bongo and scimitar-horned oryx, along with llamas, donkeys and yaks.
The new goats are a pygmy breed and a cross of the pygmy and Nigerian Dwarf breeds, Harrison said.
“We fully intend to keep them here for their entire lives,” she said.
LANSING — An infectious disease that afflicts hooved animals prompted the Potter Park Zoo to euthanize its goat herd in May, the zoo confirmed Thursday.
The pygmy goats contracted Johne’s Disease, which causes a gradual thickening of the lining of the intestine and eventually leads to death, the zoo said. The animals were put down to keep them from suffering and to prevent the disease from spreading to other zoo animals, it said.
“Once we discovered they were infected, we basically had to put them to sleep so they would not suffer,” said Tara Harrison, the zoo’s veterinarian and curator. “We caught it early enough that none of the other animals in the zoo were infected.”
The six goats were in the petting zoo exhibit and have since been replaced by seven baby goats that came from a farm free of Johne’s disease, Harrison said.
Johne’s Disease, or mycobaterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP), is hard to detect and afflicts cattle, deer, sheep, goats and other ruminants, according to information on a Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine Web page.
Animals typically contract the disease at a young age, but don’t show symptoms for several years.
MAP is common in goats and cattle and is present in 60 to 70 percent of the state’s goat herds, Harrison said. It can take up to three months to determine whether an animal is infected using the most reliable test for the disease, she said.
Harrison said the zoo had been managing the problem over the past year, testing each animal individually and euthanizing them when they tested positive. Toward the end, all of the remaining goats tested positive and were put down, she said.
“We don’t like to euthanize animals, but it was the most humane thing to do,” the vet said. “It was the best thing to do for the goats and the best thing to do for all of the animals here at the zoo.”
The zoo took extraordinary measures to prevent the disease from spreading to other animals, scorching the earth to kill bacteria, replacing the top three inches of soil and disinfecting the barn with bleach, she said.
Also, staff who care for the goats do not care for any of the other hooved animal species, she said.
The zoo’s other hooved residents include the critically endangered black rhino, Bactrian camel, eastern bongo and scimitar-horned oryx, along with llamas, donkeys and yaks.
The new goats are a pygmy breed and a cross of the pygmy and Nigerian Dwarf breeds, Harrison said.
“We fully intend to keep them here for their entire lives,” she said.