Hello Jean,(posted 8954 days ago)AHHHH.... you asked the million dollar controversial question. I'll try to help answer you concerns in brief without going into details. Yes... CAE can be spread through breeding if the buck is positive or the doe. It is spread through blood to blood contact. So if you had the buck or doe or any 2 goats in a area and 1 had CAE and the other not any contact between them that would draw blood would cause it to be transmitted. this was the case with a breeder who used a positive buck on her free herd and then she was contaminated and no longer considered CAE free. I'm not sure about semen, perhaps vickie will have some insight on this. I've heard that it can be and then not. I usually go by the safe route and act like it might be. The buck owner never told her the buck tested positive. Note I said tested positive. And the only reliable test is out of Washington St. called the WADDL test. Its a long complicated stastical answer for this which I will only say so far not test is 100% but they are close. We have a medium sized herd now, last yr was small as we had only 6 does and 2 bucks. We tested anyways as we needed to know if our goats had CAE. it was worth every penny. I would recommend testing for peace of mind. Its not too expensive. You can show a CAE positive goat if you don't have the specific test as most shows only call for TB and Brucllosis (sp). I AM IN NO WAY PROMOTING THIS, however, the way the rules and regulations are written you can slip by. Be very careful showing as it only takes 1 drop to infest, especially if the pen neighbor is positive. You can tell a positive goat by the swollen knees. I've seen some does with knees the size of tennis balls in shows. just be very careful and I highly recommend testing. Hope this helps.
Bernice