CAE is a virus in goats which has two forms:

The Nervous Form of CAE
Nerves which control motor function of the hind limbs are progressively destroyed..

The Arthritic Form of CAE
Arthritis recognized as a gradually developing lameness
Please note that not all swollen joints or stiff limbs in goats is CAE arthritis..

Here at Sancta Grotto we try to raise our animals as “naturally” as we possibly can. We believe stress is a great contributor to dis-ease. Much of the time, if you can eliminate stress, the body can ward off illness just fine on it’s own. One way stress happens is when you alter the way the animal would have naturally lived in nature. Of course, you can not raise your animals completely “naturally”, but you can look at how they would have lived in nature and work from there. The more we change the nature lifestyle of the animals, the more prone to illness they are (and also the more work it is to raise them).

We spend a lot of time with our animals and they are all very friendly. We give them love and compassion. In turn they love us back and want us to touch them and be with them. We raise and treat all our animals with the love and respect they deserve.

If any of our animals do get sick, we treat them in natural ways, if possible, but also use whatever medical treatments are needed to best help our animals live happy, healthy lives.

Goats are loving, caring, intelligent creatures. I do not believe that you must bottle raise a goat to have it be friendly toward people. We do not bottle raise our kids (unless absolutely necessary) and they are as friendly as can be. What we do is spend time with them everyday from the moment they are born. They accept us as members of the herd and enjoy all the attention we give them.

The disease CAE (Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis) is a nervous disease in goats, first reported in 1974. It was originally named Viral Leukoencephalomyelitis of Goats (VLG) but when it became apparent that arthritis could also result from the same virus infection, the name of the disease was changed to Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Syndrome (CAE). It has been found that this virus also produces changes in the lung and/or udder but the name CAE is still the name used to refer to this virus.

It is believed that the most direct infection route for CAE is from mother, to kid, through infected colostrum, body fluids, and milk. Because of this method of transmission, many goat breeders practice “CAE prevention”. This practice entails removing the kid from it’s mother the moment it is born and bottle raising it on pasteurized milk. This is so that the CAE virus can not be passed from the mother to the kid through the milk. It is this part of the practice, of taking the kids from their mothers, which conflict with our personal and religious beliefs. CAE can be a very bad and painful disease, and we are not pro-CAE, we just cannot ethically “pull” the kids from their mothers. Goat mothers love their kids, just as you would love your own children. To take the kids away, not only breaks their heart, it causes stress, which causes diseases to surface due to stress.

We also feel that raising the kid in an unnatural way (bottle feeding) causes stress. Kids need their mothers to love them and teach them. Without their mothers they become stressed, thus causing disease. Pasteurizing milk kills bacteria, and yes, it will kill the CAE virus, but it also kills the beneficial bacteria in the milk. Without this beneficial bacteria, the kids immune systems do not become as strong as it would on raw milk. Pasteurizing “cooks” the milk. We believe that kids especially need “uncooked” colostrum to get a proper start in life. This cooking destroys much of the nutrients and vitamins in the milk. Also, we have found that kids that have access to their own mother’s milk as they are growing up, grow bigger and stronger, and are hardier and more disease resistant as adults.

A drawback in trying to eliminate CAE from your herd is that there are just a few blood tests to find out if a goat has CAE, all with varying degrees of accuracy. These tests, test for antibodies to CAE. If the test comes back positive, it does not necessarily mean that the goat has CAE, it means she possess antibodies to the disease. This only means that at some point in her life she was exposed to CAE, it does not mean she has it. The goat can have the CAE virus, but may never actually develop the CAE disease. There may even be a possibility that this goat has a resistance to the disease and could pass that resistance on to her kids. Also, not all CAE-infected goats produce antibodies, thus “false negatives” in testing is possible.

Even with tests, and practicing CAE prevention (pulling kids, separating CAE positive animals, etc.), there is no way of guaranteeing that a herd is totally “free” of CAE. You can only know if a herd has recently tested negative to the antibodies. Goats have been known to be raised in a totally “free” herd for many years and all of a sudden, as many as seven years later, “revert”. Any goat can “revert” at any time.

We started our herd with just a few does and two bucks and have “bred up” with these animals. We practice holistic husbandry, and now maintain a “closed” herd. Any new additions we bring in to our herd from the outside are healthy and have been tested negative for CAE. We do not let our goats leave our property (we do not show). We do this because we have no signs of illness in our herd and do not wish to bring in any. Our herd is 100% CAE & CL negative, and does are tested prior to pregnancy. If any of our goats were to ever start showing signs, meaning they actually had the disease, and not just the antibodies, we would act according. There is no known cure in Western Medicine for CAE and we would treat the goat in natural and alternative ways to try to cure her illness. If that did not work and if the goat were in pain and was suffering, we would humanly relieve that goat from his/her suffering. If we had a doe that showed symptoms of CAE, we would never breed them because we would not want to risk them infecting their kids.

The purpose of the information here is to provide some understanding of what CAE really is about.