A new active property – just the second this year – has been confirmed with Mycoplasma bovis.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) M bovis programme said the new confirmed property, in Mid Canterbury, was identified through routine testing. There are now three confirmed active infected properties in the country, which is at the tail end of the outbreak.
M bovis director Simon Andrew said it is “not unexpected that we have found another infected property at this stage of the eradication effort and we can expect to find more”.
“We are investigating how this property became infected and what the infection source is likely to be, including undertaking genomic analysis.
“We believe this is a recent infection and it has been caught early,” Andrew said.
The programme is carrying out cattle-movement tracing as is standard practice when a property is confirmed to be infected.
Andrew said finding new infected properties during the current phase of the eradication is expected, and the programme remains on course to make New Zealand the first country in the world to eradicate M bovis.
Over the past 18 months very few cases of M bovis have been found, compared to the earlier years of the eradication effort.
At the height of the disease outbreak, in 2018-2019, there were up to 40 infected properties at any one time.
Now there are just three, all in Mid Canterbury, including the Five Star beef feedlot.
Andrew said the programme was moving in on “the last remaining pockets of infection, and we can be optimistic that we are nearing our goal of eradication”.
He said farmers should remain vigilant and ensure they are recording animal movements.
“NAIT is our number one tool to quickly trace animals and find infection quickly, and when it is not accurate it can cause delays.”
He said the eradication programme continues to follow up trace animals and risk events, taking every opportunity to undertake surveillance testing to be sure there is no undetected infection in the national herd.
“Farmers can take heart that while we may find further infection, we are undertaking a significant amount of surveillance, which shows the disease is not widespread.
“With high levels of background and network surveillance being undertaken and very few new active confirmed properties, we can be optimistic that good progress has been made towards eradication and that we are in the tail end of the disease outbreak,” Andrew said.
There have been a total of 275 infected properties to date, 205 in the South Island and 70 in the North Island.
Adding to the three current confirmed infected properties, there are 23 properties under Notice of Direction with 80 properties under active surveillance.
A total of $229.2 million has been paid in compensation across 2780 claims, with 13 claims currently being progressed.
