New Zealand’s largest commercial cattle feedlot is empty and in a stand-down period for a Mycoplasma bovis cleaning and disinfecting process.
As part of the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) eradication programme for M bovis, Five Star Beef was empty of cattle by the end of 2022.
From the start of January the operation has been subject to a stand-down cleaning and disinfecting process.
The cleaning process is expected to be complete by mid-March.
ANZCO general manager systems, supply and sustainability Grant Bunting said ANZCO Foods has worked closely with MPI since M bovis was found at the Five Star Beef feedlot near Ashburton in 2018, a year after the disease was first found in NZ on a farm in South Canterbury.
He said Five Star Beef has followed all MPI’s advice and implemented and complied with all MPI’s biosecurity requirements, always knowing that eventually the feedlot would be emptied to clear the disease.
MPI said Five Star Beef practises a high standard of biosecurity that is well managed.
MPI made the decision to hold off depopulating the feedlot until close to the end of the eradication programme based on the risk of re-infection at the feedlot, which had been able to continue operating because from there all cattle go directly to slaughter.
The feedlot depopulation started on October 13.
Bunting said Five Star Beef has an important role in the community and this was considered when developing the depopulation and repopulation plans.
To minimise the impact on its suppliers, Five Star Beef has continued to buy cattle and is finishing them on grass on contract-grazing properties to help with the repopulation process when it takes place from mid-March.
Established in 1989 to finish Angus steers for the Japanese market, Five Star Beef is the single largest supplier of chilled beef exports, with up to 20,000 cattle at any one time.
“Five Star Beef is part of a significant supply chain and the depopulation will have widespread impact on the feedlot’s business, its many cattle and feed suppliers as well as the wider community,” Bunting said.
The business is a key part of the local Ashburton economy, being directly responsible for 300 jobs, with 30 people employed at the operation and the others involved in processing the niche product at nearby ANZCO Foods Canterbury.
The operation annually takes up to 40,000 head of cattle from farms all over the country as well as 50,000t of grain and 18,000t of maize from local suppliers.
This accounts for 90% of South Island maize and 8% of NZ’s grain production.
Meanwhile M bovis programme director Simon Andrew said the programme remains on track to eradicate the disease from NZ with the current focus targeting a sole pocket of confirmed infection in Mid Canterbury.
A Controlled Area Notice (CAN) was declared in the Wakanui area of the Mid Canterbury district from October 13 2022, restricting the movement of cattle in an effort to stop M boviscirculating in the area.
The CAN defines two areas: a high-risk area (boundaries of properties that were confirmed infected with M bovis in 2022 in the Wakanui area) and an at-risk area (boundaries of at least one property outside of the high-risk area).
To date, no infection has been found in the at-risk area and therefore at present none of these properties require depopulation.
“We are making good progress towards clearing infection from the high-risk area of the controlled area,” Andrew said.
The high-risk area of the CAN is expected to be free of cattle by mid-January.
All confirmed properties in the high-risk area will undergo cleaning and disinfection as well as a stand-down period as part of removing infection from the controlled area.
The CAN will remain in place until about mid-March, or until testing confirms infection is not present in the area.
“Although we are at the tail-end of this outbreak it is possible we may find other infected properties in other parts of the country in the future and so we must remain vigilant and maintain our nationwide surveillance programme,” Andrew said.
