Officials say disease control possible
Officials say they are still focused on eradicating the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis and have narrowed down the spread of animals from the third infected farm near Oamaru.
But North Otago sheep and beef farmer Julian Price is not so convinced. He told RNZ a neighbour of his had been grazing bulls adjacent to the Oamaru farm, and since then had shifted them, potentially infecting other animals at farm boundaries.
‘‘The first thing cattle do when you put two mobs together is rush over to the fence and rub noses which is the perfect way for transmission,’’ Price told RNZ.
He urged the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to take a more rigorous approach to dealing with the disease. MPI spokesman Stu Rawnsley said animals which had been traced moving from the Oamaru farm to 14 others were all within a radius of about 200 kilometres.
‘‘We are looking at every movement within the risk period, which is from the beginning of this year.’’
There is speculation the disease may have spread to the North Island. Rawnsley said in previous years animals from the Van Leeuwen Group had been moved throughout the country, but tests had yet to show farms outside South Canterbury/North Otago had been affected.
The disease was first reported on July 20 on a farm at Morven in South Canterbury, one of 16 owned by Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen. Since then it has been detected in a second neighbouring van Leeuwen farm and a third not owned by them near Oamaru.
MPI stood by its stance of not naming the owner of the third farm, saying if it wanted to it was illegal to do so. Federated Farmers biosecurity spokesman Guy Wigley said he understood the principle behind why MPI wanted to maintain the farmer’s privacy.
‘‘It’s important that farmers feel confident if they have an incursion. There are policies in place which make sure people can put their hands up. If people feel they are going to be outed, they might be reluctant.’’
Ospri chief executive Michelle Edge said the M. bovis incident had been the first ‘‘real’’ one since the animal identification and tracing system NAIT came into effect four years ago. It was functioning as well as could be hoped, she said.
‘‘We have been looking at animal movements in all areas and between the North and South Island - more than 100,000 movements have been reported.’’
She said this did not denote the number of animals traced relation to the disease.
‘‘We generate reports on areas but that has nothing to do with the numbers of animals affected [by the disease]. It’s then up to MPI what they do with the data.’’
Edge said she was confident the disease could be eradicated.
An Australian, she pointed to experience across the Tasman with equine flu where it was eradicated after six months.
‘‘There’s no need to hit the panic button, these things take time.’’
Rawnsley agreed and described some of the reaction as hysterical, especially over calls to bring in the military, which would not be greeted favourably in overseas markets.
The only laboratory doing the tests was in Wallaceville, Upper Hutt, which was the only one accredited to deal with it, and with the necessary security level.
New Zealand had the ‘‘entire world’s stock of tests, we’ve dried up all global supplies.’’
M. bovis is highly contagious within herds but not from farm to farm through airborne means.
It is found in all of the world’s dairy countries, does not infect humans and presents no food safety risk.
There is no concern about consuming milk and milk products. The disease causes untreatable mastitis in dairy and beef cows, pneumonia in up to 30 per cent of infected calves, ear infections in calves, abortions and swollen joints and lameness. in