And it intended to eradicate the disease if possible.
Staff were continuing to build the picture of where the disease was present by doing extensive and thorough testing to give certainty to farmers and the public.
Surveillance and testing were being done in a planned manner based on prioritising risks and ensuring rigorous sampling and testing protocols were being followed.
“We are 13 days into the response and we are making very good progress. To give you an idea of the scale, our lab has processed around 1200 samples to date.”
Testing continued on the 16 van Leeuwen Dairy Group farms.
Two of them had tested positive.
“There are 62 properties bordering the VLDG farms and we will be testing all that have cattle on them,” Gwyn said.
“We have confirmed results for nine of the bordering farms to date, with all being negative.
“This is good news but further testing on these farms will be required before they can be declared free of the disease and we expect testing to take several months.
“Sample testing is a complex process which takes time and it’s important we take that time to get accurate results.
“The disease doesn’t always present symptoms so we need to take two sets of samples one month apart and possibly a third depending on those results.
”I realise that farmers are keen to get answers as soon as possible.
“Our labs teams are working quickly and thoroughly seven days a week and we have increased staff numbers to carry out the work.
“On average, the process takes up to seven days from taking the sample onfarm to getting back to the farmer with the results.
“MPI vets, scientists and on-the-ground staff are working hard on the response and we are getting great support from industry organisations.
“We remain focused on eradicating this disease from New Zealand,” Gwyn said.
