MPI widens cow disease search
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) says testing for Mycoplasma bovis has shown the cow disease is still confined to two of the van Leeuwen farms.
However, cows will have to be tested for a further two rounds before their status is known for certain and that could take twothree months. All 16 of Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen’s farms in South Canterbury have been sampled and tested with two properties confirmed positive, seven properties negative and results pending for the other seven properties. So far, more than 4600 samples of milk, blood and swabs, including from all of their farms.
MPI has cast its net wider to 62 properties bordering them, and is testing all that have cattle on them. Samples have been collected from 21 nearby properties, with the first results from nine of these negative.
Mycoplasma bovis is a disease affecting dairy cows which causes mastitis, lameness, pneumonia and abortions. Once a cow is infected, it is impossible to be cured and has to be put down.
It does not infect humans and presents no food safety risk. There is no concern about consuming milk and milk products. Widespread in the rest of the world, it was detected in New Zealand for the first time last month on a van Leeuwen farm.
Response incident controller Eve Pleydell said good progress had been made. ’’The disease doesn’t always show symptoms so we need to take three sets of samples three to four weeks apart, and possibly further sampling depending on those results’’.
MPI was also trying to find out if the disease was in other parts of the country.
Dr Pleydell said it was working with veterinary laboratories, Massey University and animal industry bodies to collect and analyse samples, including milk from cows that have mastitis, discard milk and routine bulk milk samples. The first samples from the laboratories arrived at MPI’S Animal Health Laboratory last week.