MPI optimistic on M. bovis progress, despite three new Canterbury farms

After the culling of almost 52,000 cattle and nationwide testing, the Ministry for Primary Industries says it is optimistic there are no undetected clusters of cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis.
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While another three farms, all in Mid Canterbury, have been confirmed positive for M. bovis, national testing of milk from every dairy farm and sampling of reared calves had not produced any unexplained cases.
The ministry’s incident controller Catherine Duthie said the results were promising. «They were designed to test the prevalence of M. bovis in New Zealand and have shown that there are no previously undetected clusters.
«To date we have only found three properties through spring bulk milk testing and all three properties were already part of our tracing programme and they all have previously known links to the disease,» Duthie said.
«There is still a lot of work to do, but we are optimistic of the progress made so far and what that holds for the future. There are now 51 properties which have had their infected property status lifted and are returning to business,» Duthie said.
After sampling 11,200 properties, the ministry had almost completed its spring bulk milk testing, with a small number of farms waiting their final tests. Samples were taken shortly after calving, when cows were most likely to be shedding the bacterium.
In addition, 112 calf rearing properties out of 153 surveyed have had their tests completed, with no properties testing positive to date. The test involved a simple one-off nasal swab on calves at each property.
Compensation of $33.9 million had been paid to farmers, with another $8.5m of claims assessed. Of the 527 claims received by the ministry, 271 have been completed or partly paid.
Canterbury was by far the biggest centre of the disease, with 43 confirmed farms, of which 17 remain contaminated. This made up more than half of the 83 confirmed cases nationally. Of these, 32 still need to complete destocking, cleaning and a 60 day stand-down period.
The ministry said that while a Taranaki farm had been served a restricted place notice, the first in the region, this was not a new infection or outbreak. A restricted place notice restricted the movements of animals and other risk goods off a farm.
«The cattle from this farm come from another farm which is infected and the tests show the herd has been exposed to M. bovis and therefore is at a very high risk of being infected,» a spokeswoman said.
«The M. bovis response team has been working extremely hard and has established that the risk of infection is high.
«This is a sensitive situation and extremely trying for the farmers involved. For privacy reasons we cannot go into specifics of the property involved, however we can confirm that a number of animals will be culled. We have not taken this decision lightly but, if we are to eradicate M. bovis from New Zealand, it is necessary.
While the first confirmed farm was in South Canterbury in July last year, a Southland farm, Southern Centre Dairies, was regarded by the ministry as the original source of the disease.
In a phased eradication costing $886m, the Government would cull about 150,000 cattle in an attempt to rid the country of the bacterial disease which can cause untreatable mastitis, abortion and arthritis in cows.
The disease is harmless to humans and is not transmitted through meat or milk.

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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