Commercial M. bovis test being developed

The tool is part of a partnership comprising of commercial laboratories, industry representatives and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

The tool will be released once sampling guidelines, a testing strategy and possibly an accreditation programme have been developed – to ensure the test can be accurately applied and interpreted.

MPI response director Geoff Gwyn says since the discovery of Mycoplasma bovis in New Zealand last year the partnership had been working hard to provide practitioners and farmers with better diagnostic tests to assist in detecting the cattle disease on their farms.

“However, while testing options and solutions are becoming available, we have identified that interpreting a one-off test result, even at the herd level, in isolation to other factors, is challenging and carries inherent risk for farmers. The tests currently available will lead to a significant number of farms being falsely identified as positive and farms that may be real positives being missed.

“That’s why we are developing robust processes, including a testing strategy and sampling guidelines which may form part of an accreditation programme.”

The partnership behind the test programme includes representatives from NZ Veterinary Association, Beef & Lamb NZ, DairyNZ, Dairy Companies Association of NZ, Federated Farmers, AsureQuality, MilkTest NZ, Livestock Improvement Corporation, New Zealand Veterinary Pathology, SVS Laboratories and Gribbles Veterinary Pathology.