Farmers cautious after M bovis found

Local farmers are keeping their heads cool following the Government announcement of the region’s first case of Mycoplasma bovis.

Wendy Henderson from Kairuru Farm Stay in the Takaka Hill area said they were ‘‘not the least bit worried’’.

Biosecurity New Zealand said on Tuesday a property near Motueka had tested positive for the bacterial cattle disease. The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) said the affected property was a mixed sheep and beef farm.

The farm was identified through tracing animals from known infected farms, and is now under a Restricted Place Notice, which means it is in ‘‘quarantine lockdown’’, restricting the movement of animals and other ‘‘risk goods’’ on and off the farm.

MPI said it wouldn’t publicly name the farm, but neighbours who shared a boundary with the property would be notified, and the risk to neighbouring farms was ‘‘very low’’.

The infected cattle will be culled as part of the Government’s programme to eradicate the disease.

The Hendersons’ 1620-hectare working hill country sheep and cattle farm near Motueka was relatively isolated from other cattle, Wendy Henderson said.

She said they had been ‘‘particularly cautious’’.

‘‘We’re mindful of tracing the sources of anything we buy and all those sort of things. We just know that it could be devastating for any farmer, so we’ve just been cautious ourselves.’’

Federated Farmer provincial support person Jan Gillanders said it had a comprehensive plan in place to deal with M bovis together with MPI and the Rural Support Trust.

The Nelson branch of Federated Farmers covers the area from Riwaka through to Nelson city and down to Murchison. Golden Bay has its own branch.

‘‘We do have a co-ordinated approach to managing a biosecurity issue,’’ Gillanders said.

She said farmers in the region would have to be ‘‘really careful’’ with their quarantine procedures, should they have to be locked down.

Gillanders said farmers were advised to take simple precautions such as cleaning the boot of their car when they visited other people’s farms.

She said that although the virus caused devastation on the farms it infected, it didn’t pose a risk to humans.

‘‘Cows are social animals, and they’ll touch noses with each other – that’s how it’s transmitted. We’ve been told the virus doesn’t live very long outside of the animal, maybe 20 minutes.’’

MPI mycoplasma bovis response incident controller Catherine Duthie said the discovery of new infected properties wasn’t because the disease was spreading from infected quarantined farms.

‘‘All known infected farms or farms we suspect may be positive are in quarantine lockdown, and no movements of risk goods, including animals, are allowed off them.

‘‘The new finds are the result of our tracing uncovering historical movements of animals and then confirming the infection through testing. The latest identified properties show the infection has occurred fairly recently, which means we are catching it earlier.’’

Duthie said progress was being made in the response to M bovis, although that ‘‘may be little comfort to those infected farmers’’.

‘‘Nationally, the number of active infected properties has dropped to 35, while 28 farms have been cleaned and depopulated.’’

The M bovis response team was looking at ways farmers could be supported better as they moved into the recovery phase.