Infected farms down to one

There is only one remaining Mycoplasma bovis-infected farm in Southland, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries.

The news comes as the ministry marked the first two years of its 10-year, $880 million eradication programme on Tuesday.

Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor said New Zealand was on track to become the first country to wipe out the cattle disease.

MPI regional recovery manager Richard McPhail said a team effort, with input from industry and the rural community, had helped bring M bovis under control in Southland.

‘‘The farmers in our area have a huge awareness of M bovis and how on-farm stock management can assist with our on-farm sampling and testing,’’ McPhail said.

‘‘The farming communities in the south are no strangers to how M bovis is managed and works, and we have interaction to achieve our results now.’’

Other helpful factors were improved use of the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) system and a high standard of communication, he said.

Another Southland farm was still classified as active but the cleaning and disinfecting process had been completed and the farm was being repopulated, he said.

Eight farms in the region were under a notice of direction while 14 farms remained under active surveillance, McPhail said.

A total of 27 Southland properties had been infected since the start of the outbreak in 2017.

A national update released by the ministry last week said 17 farms throughout the country were still active.

More than 1.4 million tests had been conducted and more than 150,000 animals had been culled.

Notices of direction had been revoked from 1715 farms to date.

O’Connor said the decision to eradicate M bovis, made in partnership

with DairyNZ and Beef and Lamb New Zealand, would also help the industry to weather the economic effects of the coronavirus crisis.

‘‘Beef and dairy export prices have held up,’’ he said.

‘‘In fact, there was record demand for our meat. In March total red meat monthly exports topped $1 billion for the first time.

‘‘This shows that these sectors are well placed to lead us out of this economic crisis.’’

The programme’s priority over the next 12 to 18 months would continue to be finding and eliminating M bovis, O’Connor said, with the ‘‘delimiting’’ phase expected to end in 2021.

This would be followed by background surveillance testing for the next seven years, he said.

McPhail said the Southland area had come through well with bulk milk testing results, and a beef surveillance programme was up and running nationally.

‘‘These are all tools we use to view how the region is functioning, as well as looking strategically at the national landscape within the programme,’’ he said.

McPhail hoped NAIT usage would be improved in Southland in the coming months through more education about farm biosecurity.