Caprine Arthritic Encaphalitis or Caprine Retrovirus as it is now known is a disease that can cause increasing debility and pain in a goat with a loss in milk production.

The virus has been isolated in the body fluids of infected animals, mainly milk, blood, saliva, birth fluids and semen. It is passed on to a kid when it first suckles it's infected dam but can also be spread via shared feed or drinking troughs, mating, needles and, I imagine, a goat licking or eating an infected doe's afterbirth.

Once infected, the virus may lay dormant in the goat for months or years or her entire life. A stress, such as kidding, often triggers the onset of the disease. Other stresses could include periods of prolonged bad weather, other health problems such as worms or when the animal has been moved to a different location.

Symptoms

• Swollen joints particularly knees and fetlocks
• Wasting, loosing weight despite healthy diet
• Hard Udder - where, upon kidding, it is discovered that the lovely big udder has no milk and is just hard

The photo below is of a goatling at about 9 months of age (born in 1994). She was perfectly well until 6 months then developed this curved spine and a dropped hip which I attributed it to CAE. She became extremely thin and had to be destroyed at about 12 months of age.

Testing of blood and "snatching" kids from infected goats before they suck is the only means of eradicating the disease. This is not cheap and results are not foolproof as false positives and suspects can occur. My vet advised me to treat the results only as a whole herd test and isolate any animal who ever tested positive or suspect from the "clean" herd. Click here to read my personal CAE story

I will add links here to sites that have greater detail about testing and symptoms