Speed up response, farmers tell Govt

O’Connor says he visited affected farmers at Winton earlier this month; he had visited affected South Canterbury properties before Christmas.

“Farmers have shared their concerns about the [slowness] of the response, started under the National Government in July, and how we can contain the spread of the disease,” O’Connor says.

“I have great sympathy for farmers caught in the outbreak, who face tough decisions to protect their livelihoods.

“There is a willingness out there to do whatever it takes to eradicate M. bovis. This remains our focus.’’

He reiterated that M. bovis is not a food safety risk; it affects animal welfare and production. 

Last week he also announced a new testing and tracing regime with the aim of providing a clearer indication of the spread of M. bovis and potential action for eradication by the end of February.

Ministry for Primary Industries officials met last week to confirm three lines of work:

- a national M. bovis milk surveillance programme: MPI will test three samples of milk from every dairy farm starting on February 1. Results are expected in February and March.

- tracing animals moved from properties under Restricted Place notices: investigators have followed up almost 1000 contacts for possible links to infected properties; 39 are under Restricted Place notices as testing continues and 17 properties are confirmed infected. Tracing and confirming animal movements from the infected properties takes several days for each property and involves using records from NAIT, Animal Status Declarations, trucking dockets and interviews with farmers.

- genome sequencing: the tool used to work out whether the strain of M. bovis is the same on all infected farms. It takes several months as it involves growing the bacterium from samples.