Friday, March 29, 2024

M bovis farm test times cut

Avatar photo
On-farm sampling for Mycoplasma bovis is about to become a lot less stressful for farmers.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The M bovis programme is changing on-farm sampling protocols and how it interprets results from ELISA testing of blood samples.

The changes will cut the time many farms spend under active surveillance and notices of direction. 

“This is a positive step forward in reducing the impact on farmers from sampling and testing for M bovis,” Ministry for Primary Industries chief science adviser Dr John Roche said. 

“Our scientists have analysed the results from hundreds of thousands of samples and from that they have refined our sampling criteria to effectively halve the number of rounds of sampling and testing required for many farms while ensuring we still correctly identify infected management groups.”

The changes mean where possible blood samples will be collected from more cattle each time a property is visited.

Only one round of sampling and testing will be required if the results are negative.

“It is important to keep in mind that more testing might be required in the future if other risk events are found,” Roche said. 

Beef + Lamb technical policy manager Chris Houston said many beef farmers will have to wait only half as long for an all-clear and get back to business as usual. 

“It could mean a reduction of up to five weeks of waiting for farmers to get a result, which is a great step forward,” Houston said.

DairyNZ biosecurity policy adviser Nita Harding said “These changes will reduce the impact of on-farm sampling for many dairy farmers under active surveillance. 

“The majority of these farms are not infected and these developments in the testing mean we will be able to determine their disease status faster and with less disruption to their farming activities.”

The programme is also changing the way it interprets ELISA results based on expert analysis of the hundreds of thousands of samples. 

There will no longer be suspicious results – only positive or negative. 

Meanwhile, eradication of Mycoplasma bovis continues to be a realistic goal despite the case surge that created a programme blip leading into winter.

“Yes, we had a backlog but the casing surge has not had any negative impact on the overall programme.

“In fact, it’s given us a far stronger sense of what the casing programme looks like,” M bovis programme director Geoff Gwyn said.

“We always said it would be a 10-year programme and the first two years would be the heavy lifting years. That’s not changed.”

MPI increased staff numbers with more leadership in the disease management functions to cope with the case surge and factor in the ebbs and flows and spikes and weaknesses of the programme.

“In fact it would be fair to say we are over-resourced now,” Gwyn said.

The goal to have 90% of the decisions made on the ground by regional managers is on track.

“It’s what farmers asked for and we realise that’s what needs to happen and so we are putting capability into headquarters.

“We are not quite there yet but we are getting to the point where regional managers will be making 90% of the decisions on farms with farmers.”

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading