Austria is one of those European countries where Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis(Map) infection in cattle was given the status of a notifiable disease. In April 2006 control of paratuberculosis was based on a new ordinance, focused on the eradication of clinically affected cattle, sheep, goats and farmed deer. The costs for laboratory diagnosis and indemnity for the destruction of paratuberculosis diseased animals are provided by the Austrian government.

Objective of this regulation is the detection and eradication of clinically diseased animals, which are the main source for further infections with MAP.

Clinically suspicious animals are tested by ELISA for MAP specific antibodies in blood samples and by Realtime PCR for MAP specific DNA from feces or tissue samples in cases of culled or perished animals.

Samples from 103 farms were sent to the National Reference Laboratory for paratuberculosis within the first year since the implementation of the paratuberculosis regulation. In 36 farms the clinically suspicious cases were confirmed by laboratory examinations. The significantly most affected breed was Limousin.

Further examinations for molecular typing of isolated MAP strains will be carried out for epidemiological investigations.