CATTLE DISEASE
Fears for distraught farmers as 150,000 cows face slaughter
Farmers affected by the Government’s new eradication plan to tackle the Mycoplasma bovis cattle disease will need to be supported in what will be a harrowing time for them and their families.
The warning came as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday a further 126,000 cattle would be destroyed in an effort to rid New Zealand of the disease.
Ardern said it was a tough decision and would be a worldfirst bid to eradicate it.
“I empathise fully with those farmers going through the pain of losing their herds,” she said.
The cull, of about 126,000 in addition to the 26,000 already under way, will take place over one to two years.
Mycoplasma bovis is a bacterium that causes udder infections (mastitis), abortion, pneumonia and arthritis in cattle.
It does not infect humans and presents no food safety risk.
Ashburton farmer Frank Peters said the announcement was gutting and he thought more time would be allowed for the eradication.
Peters had been placed on depopulation notice by the Ministry for Primary Industries and had already lost 1000 cattle from the cull. He had 500 cattle and 500 calves left which would likely also be culled.
The cost of losing his herd would be a cost on his family, the amount unquantifiable.
“The mental state of everyone is on tenterhooks. No sleep, you don’t sleep and think ‘is this a bad dream?’ But, no, you wake up and it is the same thing.”
Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor said as a former sharemilker and farmer he could relate to the “terrible situation facing anyone who has to cull their herd”.
“It’s really tough on the families . . . It’s up to us to work together and support them.”
Federated Farmers president Katie Milne called it an “excruciating experience. We’re going to president Fiona Gower said her organisation was ready to support those affected, especially women and children: “We are committed to ensuring [there is] wraparound welfare support for those affected because we understand that without this, high levels of stress in times of any crisis and in the aftermath can lead to a breakdown in our rural social fabric.
“The last thing we need is the bullying of our children, an increase in family violence or even suicide,” she said.
DairyNZ said it backed the Government.
Ardern said to not act would cost even more than what would be spent on trying to eradicate it — $886 million: “We have this one shot to eradicate, and we are taking it together.”
She said New Zealand had some factors that made it possible for it to be the only country to eradicate the disease — it was early in the outbreak, there were natural borders, and there was only one strain identified so far.
The Government will meet 68 per cent of the cost and Dairy NZ and Beef and Lamb NZ will meet 32 per cent. After depopulation, cattle will be disinfected and lie fallow for 60 days after which they can be restocked.
High-risk animal movements have been traced to 3000 farms.