Ministry for Primary Industries chief science adviser and M bovis Strategic Science Advisory Group chairman Dr John Roche says Massey was awarded the contract in March but because of the lockdown its scientists could not travel to farms to begin their work.
The study’s principal investigator, senior lecturer in veterinary epidemiology Dr Chris Compton, who is responsible for its overall running and reporting, says the study will focus on herds recently diagnosed as infected with M bovis.
Researchers will follow cows and calves over time by repeatedly sampling and measuring productivity, including monitoring physical signs, effects on milk yield and composition and the duration of those effects.
The research will be done on several farms until the animals are culled. Only properties already known to be positive for M bovis will be included and there will be no delay to depopulation dates because of the research.
The study’s findings will be of international interest, Compton says.
“The disease is well known internationally and there is a lot known about individual cases but it is poorly understood how the disease affects a whole herd of animals or group of calves.”
Roche says the research will help to better understand how the disease affects different stock classes and to do that it will encompass as wide a range of farming systems as possible.
Different farming systems might have different risks as to how the disease spreads within herds or mobs.
“The results of this project will contribute evidence to help in the detection of M bovis, improve our surveillance tools and increase our understanding of how the disease spreads under different New Zealand farming systems, which is key in terms of eradication.
“It will also help us to quantify the impacts, which supports some of the recommendations made in a Technical Advisory Group report.”
He says the more the disease is understood the better surveillance strategies can be targeted.
The research is expected to be completed in July 2021 and will complement other projects funded by the M Bovis Programme, an industry-Government partnership involving MPI, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb.
