If you’re thinking of raising sheep or goats, listen up. There’s a stubborn disease out there that could affect your woolly buddies.

Caseous lymphadenitis, [case-E-ous lymph-a-den-I-tis] or CL, is a bacterial disease that causes abscesses. When the abscesses rupture, they contaminate the environment where they can live for months. That’s why it’s tough to wipe out CL after it shows up on a farm.

Once a sheep or goat is infected, it’s always infected. About the only thing that helps is to open and flush the abscesses—but that also increases the chances the disease will spread. Vaccination is another option, but it’s dicey. That’s because from that point on, the animal will test positive for CL.

The 2 most important things you can do if you suspect CL are to quarantine the animal and call your veterinarian. Then you can work as a team to contain the infection.