Farmer: We’re not the source of disease
Aad van Leeuwen found himself at the centre of a storm when he reported an outbreak of mycoplasma bovis in his South Canterbury herds but says the bacterial cattle disease didn’t originate on his farms and if government compensation doesn’t come through soon his operation could go under.
“It’s been devastating,” the owner of Van Leeuwen Dairy Group told BusinessDesk. “We are struggling at the moment. Because we notified the disease we are eligible for compensation, but it’s a battle. It’s not coming through. The Government is very slow and confusing. This could put us under if it doesn’t come through.”
Van Leeuwen Dairy is a large-scale, high-performance dairy business in the South Island with 16 farms and associated business, including silage.
The disease poses no food safety risk but can hit hard at cattle, causing udder infection, abortion, pneumonia, and arthritis. There is no cure.
The outbreak reported in July was New Zealand’s first official citing of a disease that has been prevalent in other countries for decades.
The Ministry for Primary Industries moved to contain it, locking down properties, ordering the cull of about 4800 cattle on seven farms and carrying out 60,000 tests on cattle and milk samples to date.
Mr van Leeuwen, who owns the company with his wife, estimates about 1400 to 1800 of his milking cows have been culled. There is no insurance for the loss of stock or the loss of production.
MPI’s Geoff Gwynsaid compensation could only be paid “on verifiable losses and it’s often the case that further evidence is required”.
The process could take time, which was appropriate given it was taxpayer money, he said.
The disease is officially reported to be on 12 farms nationwide, including one in the Hastings district and several in Winton. The ministry will not be ordering further culling on new infected properties until it has a better understanding of the situation.
“We have always said with this disease outbreak it is unlikely we will be able to pin down the exact pathway,” a ministry spokesperson said.
Mr van Leeuwen insists it did not originate on his farms, which are selfcontained and have not imported any animals from offshore. He suspects the disease came on to his farm in a truck as the vehicles are in use all day and are not washed between loads.
He also said that he may have been the first to report the outbreak, he suspected it had been in New Zealand for several decades.
Mr Gwyn said they could not rule out any possibilities. “The purpose of the detailed tracing work our investigators are doing is to establish these links.”