The disease, identified on a van Leeuwen Dairy Group farm in South Canterbury in July, had now been traced to six farms including four van Leeuwen farms, one North Otago farm believed to be a calf rearing operation and a lifestyle block at Sefton in North Canterbury.
A fourth community meeting in North Otago on Thursday attracted a crowd of 160 people full of questions.
But Primary Industries Ministry chief operating officer Roger Smith said he didn’t know if he would need to order the destruction of dairy herds to wipe out the disease.
“That is a very hard question and one that is still on the table,” he said.
“I’m optimistic we will get the size of the picture identified and if it looks like it can be eradicated by containment of all infected farms that could mean the destruction of tens of thousands of animals.
“But I would only authorise such a drastic measure if it were proven it would eliminate the disease and only following consultation with all stakeholders and industry professionals involved in the response,” Smith said.
There was no set trigger to make a call on when it would no longer be feasible to eradicate.
“It’s not a numbers game. It’s when we start to find positives that we can’t trace back to the original source, for example if the bulk milk testing we are doing around the country finds a positive in Waikato that can’t be traced back to a van Leeuwen farm.
“At the moment what we are finding can all be traced back to the original source.
“It’s still traceable and expectable and eradication is fully doable while this is what we are finding,” Smith said.
“If thousands of stock can be destroyed with a good chance of eradication then we will go with that – a large destocking programme.”
But that would be a decision once all testing of infected farms and trace-backs had been completed.
With just a quarter of the 40,000 tests completed it would be another three months before the full picture was clear.
“I am hoping to be in a position by the end of November – that’s my optimism, as to whether we will be on an eradication process or in discussion with industry re management.
“Testing is telling us how widespread the disease is and if isolation to a region is clear we will give it (eradication) a shot,” Smith said.
He acknowledged the concern among farmers and livestock agents with bulls due to go out for mating next month.
“Mother Nature certainly isn’t on our side and we are working with industry as best we can to keep confidence up.
“What I say to farmers is, if you haven’t had a call from MPI then it’s business as usual.”
MPI was making contact with individual farms next to infected properties or connected through animal movements.
“If farmers haven’t been contacted by MPI then it means they are not in these groups and are at considerably less risk of the disease spreading to them. It’s a case of no news is good news.
“We encourage all farmers, contractors and rural professionals to protect their business by following standard onfarm hygiene best practice.
“Identify, contain, eradicate remains the focus of the response,” he said.
Farmers wanting to keep up to date with the response should register to receive the daily MPI reports at Mbovis2017_liaison@mpi.govt.nz.
