National surveillance programmes have provided confidence that M bovis is no longer widespread in NZ. Five Star Beef is destined to be cleared of the disease, which was confirmed on the property in 2018.
While not out of the woods, yet the Mycoplasma bovis programme is entering the critical phase of hunting down the last case of infection.
Although there have been no new confirmed properties in recent months, M bovis acting programme director Neil Skeet says they have lots of work ahead before eradication is achieved and he expects to find more infected herds as they track down the remaining pockets of infected farms.
Currently there are three confirmed properties, all of which are in Canterbury, including two dairy farms that are now depopulated and going through their quarantine process.
The third property is the Anzco-owned Five Star Beef feedlot in the Ashburton district.
“We have held these later properties on our books as we worked with individual farmers to plan the best time to depopulate,” Skeet said.
“There have been no new confirmed properties this year.”
He said the national surveillance programme, including the beef surveillance programme and the bulk tank milk (BTM) testing have provided confidence that Mbovis is no longer widespread in New Zealand.
The surveillance programme has played a significant role in finding pockets of infection outside the known network.
The BTM testing is still happening monthly and the beef surveillance programme continues both-on farm and through meat processing companies.
The beef surveillance programme has to date sampled close to 500,000 cattle from more than 14,000 farms, with no infected farms found.
“Our epidemiological data shows us that we are tracking well and that we are where we should be. We’re in a critical phase of eradication where we are working hard to find less.”
NZ’s biggest feedlot, Five Star Beef, is destined to be cleared of the disease, which was confirmed on the property in 2018.
Skeet said depopulation and cleaning of the feedlot was always planned to be the end clearance in the final push to eradicate the disease, once the programme is confident there are no further on-farm infections.
“The big beast is the feedlot and we are in ongoing communications with a dedicated (MPI) project team working with Anzco,” he said.
“We know this will be huge and complex and the impact will be widespread, especially in the Ashburton community.”
Five Star Beef is a key part of the local economy, with more than 300 associated jobs and generating $40 million annually to regional GDP.
Annually, the feedlot takes up to 40,000 cattle from across the country and more than 50,000 tonnes of grain and 18,000t of maize from local suppliers.
Anzco supplies premium grain-finished niche export markets to Asia, mainly Japan, with growing interest in the Middle East.
Minimising this widespread impact is forefront as the plan to clean up the feedlot is formulated, he said.
It is expected the feedlot will shut down for up to nine months.
To date, in year four of the 10-year eradication programme, close to $180,000 cattle have been culled with $216.4m paid in compensation across 2728 claims paid and, completed with 14 claims currently in progress.
Meanwhile, a new director has been appointed for the M bovis eradication programme.
Simon Andrew will take over as director on March 21, on a 12-month secondment from Ospri, where he currently holds the roles of deputy chief executive and general manager for disease control planning and integration.
He has overseen steady progress and strengthened relationships with industry partners in the TB eradication programme.
Growing up on a farm in Wairarapa, Andrew is passionate about the agriculture sector and with more than 16 years in the primary industries, he will bring valuable experience and knowledge essential to the director role to lead the programme through the critical phase of finding the last cases of M bovis infection, MPI said.
He takes over the role from Stuart Anderson following his promotion to deputy Director-General of Biosecurity NZ.
