Southland infected first?

WELLINGTON: Southland is believed to be where Mycoplasma bovis first took hold in New Zealand.

This is where the earliest known cases of infection have so far been discovered, the Ministry for Primary Industries says.

This overturns an earlier theory that a South Canterbury farm belonging to the Van Leeuwen Dairy Group was first to be infected.

While steps have been taken to trace and deal with cattle transported from the Van Leeuwen farm since July last year, controls on cows coming out of Southland were brought in much more recently.

This contributed to the disease spreading from one farm in Southland to as far as Mid Canterbury and Waikato.

RNZ understands the Southland farm, just outside Winton, belongs to Alfons Zeestraten.

All the infections detected so far from Southland to Waikato could be linked back to three farms owned by the farmer and his family.

Mr Zeestraten said he and his wife were good people who had been portrayed as criminals.

He said he did not know how the disease got on to his farm; he had done nothing illegal and had not illegally imported any bull semen or drugs that could have carried M. bovis into the country.

Mr Zeestraten said he could not talk about farmers he had sold infected cattle to until the ministry had completed its investigation.

Southland farmer Ben Walling said he had bought 60 calves from the Zeestratens just a month before the declaration that those farms were infected with M. bovis in December 2017.

He immediately locked down his own farm in case his was next to be infected.

Mr Walling said he knew something was up with the calves the day they arrived.

‘‘With the cows that were still alive when they did the blood test, about 94% of them were infected. There have been just over 400, I think it was, that were destroyed on the property . . . MPI did a cull on the property or we shot [the calves] just because of animal welfare reasons; they were just so poorly they couldn’t carry on as they were,’’ he said.

On top of the sick calves that had to be destroyed and buried in a landfill, his remaining 1300 healthy animals had to be sent to the works early, robbing him of the money he had been hoping to make through fattening them up.

His partner, Sarah Flintoft, said she found the loss of the animals particularly hard to take.

The Wallings’ farm was likely to be out of action for at least seven months as an infected property, so would not be able to use the feed they had been growing for winter.

In addition, there was the ongoing cost of having to disinfect every vehicle that came on to their property to prevent the disease being transferred in the faeces from infected cattle.

The owner of Vet South in Winton, Mark Bryan, said while the first infections came off the Zeestraten farms as early as December 2015, how M. bovis ended up there remained a mystery.

‘‘We don’t know where it’s come from or how it got in . . . MPI obviously has a suspicion, but we don’t really know conclusively if it’s arrived there first or wherever,’’ Mr Bryan said.

‘‘So I think it’s a bit unfair to speculate and certainly not very fair on them.’’

While dairy farmers had been able to continue milking infected cows and bring in an income, Mr Bryan said beef farmers such as Ben Walling had to cull their entire herd and start from scratch.

Adult cows could take a while to show any sign of the disease whereas calves had very little resistance, he said.

‘‘I think the worst part about it is we know we can’t treat them. There is no treatment for M. bovis. The best of them die quickly or are culled and the worst of them have a horrible, slow death.’’

Mr Bryan said virtually every cow in Southland and South Otago had to move off the dairy platform in the next 10 days. There still was no clear picture of how that would happen and what it would mean for farmers under restrictions.

‘‘Or if you’re a grazier and you’ve got a contract to take cows that are still being tested, they might be put under a restriction in the next week or so. That lack of clarity is causing a huge amount of stress.’’

There were now 39 properties infected with Mycoplasma bovis.

The Government had committed $85 million in funding to a frontline response to the disease.

A decision on whether to cull infected cattle to eradicate the disease or find a way to live with it is expected this week. — RNZ

❛ MPI did a cull on the property or we shot [the calves] just because of animal welfare reasons; they were just so poorly they couldn’t carry on as they were