Four more M bovis cases in Canterbury

The Ministry for Primary Industries says it is cautiously optimistic that it is getting on top of Mycoplasma bovis, despite four more Canterbury farms being confirmed as infected with the cattle disease.

Two were dairy farms and two dry stock (beef), with one in MidCanterbury and three in South Canterbury.

All received animals from already known infected properties. Tracing work from these farms is now under way.

Despite new infected properties being discovered, this was not an indication the disease was spreading, an MPI spokeswoman said.

‘‘Rather, it is MPI catching up with historical animal movements around the country. In the vast majority of cases these animal movements occurred before we were even aware that M bovis was in the country.’’

Farms were being cleared at the same time that new infections were discovered, she said. Nationally, 71 farms had been confirmed as infected, of which 37 remain contaminated.

Compensation of $22.2 million had been paid by MPI to farmers required to cull their herds, with $32.3m of claims assessed.

MPI had received 345 claims, of which 126 had been completed or received part payment.

MPI national incident controller Catherine Duthie said she was cautiously optimistic it was making good progress.

‘‘While this may be little comfort to those infected farmers it does show that progress is being made. In addition, the most recent identified properties show that the infection is fairly recent meaning we are catching it earlier.

‘‘There is a chance the number of infected properties may increase as a result of the spring bulk milk surveillance programme. However, we are cautiously optimistic there will not be a dramatic increase,’’ Duthie said.

Half of the infected farms have been in Canterbury, with 19 of a total of 35 still to complete a decontamination process of being destocked, disinfected and fallowed, before being given the allclear. Southland was the next most affected region, with 17 infected farms, of which six remain contaminated.

Each property had been identified from animal tracing and confirmed by way of testing for M bovis, Duthie said.