Confirmation of four more properties with Mycoplasma bovis — including the first in the North Island — surely, and sadly, means the proverbial cat is out of the bag.
As the cull of 4000 cattle from Van Leeuwen Dairy Group properties nears completion, yet the number presumably destined for slaughter continues to rise, the question must be asked — when is enough enough?
Since July, when the disease was first detected on a VLDG farm in the Waimate district, there are now 13 confirmed infected properties and 28 properties under Restricted Place Notices.
The Ministry for Primary Industries has always stated its intention was to contain the bacterial disease and eliminate it.
But as the number of properties affected keeps increasing — and the cost to taxpayers must be skyrocketing into many millions — does the ministry keep on slaughtering cattle? Or does it admit defeat and leave farmers to live with the disease and manage it?
Mycoplasma bovis is commonly found in cattle globally but it has never previously been found in New Zealand. While, thankfully, it does not infect humans and presents no food safety risk, it can cause mastitis, abortion, pneumonia and arthritis in cattle. The ramifications for farmers — both financially and from the ever-important animal welfare perspective — are huge.
Studies suggest at least 50% of Australian dairy herds are affected by subclinical mastitis, at a cost to their industry of more than $60 million a year. And that is just mastitis.
As the scramble to contain Mycoplasma bovis continues, there are many questions that need answering, including the effectiveness of the National Animal Identification and Tracing Scheme.
The NAIT programme traces the movements of cattle and deer throughout the country. The ministry has acknowledged the programme has fallen short of its expectations and that, if bovis had been a fast-moving disease, there might have been an even more worrying scenario.
That is a frightening thought. As South Otago farmer Ross Clark said this week, if it was foot-and-mouth disease that had arrived in New Zealand, it might now be a complete disaster for the country.
It is also disturbing that Mr Clark — who is directly affected by the disease by virtue of buying stock which originally came from VLDG — says it appears "the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing" when it comes to the ministry.
This week, the ministry said tracing animals and their movements was "complex detective work" which took time. But surely that is why the NAIT programme was introduced, which should make it a fairly straightforward process.
The outbreak is a serious one which is having a huge impact on people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. It is not just the immediately affected who are suffering; there are also farmers beyond in the community whose businesses are hurting. Presumably, compensation will not be available to those farmers, yet they have been unable to sell bulls due to a quirk of geography, living in the same region where Mycoplasma bovis has been detected, sending potential purchasers scuttling elsewhere.
Affected farmers can apply for compensation for "verifiable" losses relating to MPI exercising its legal powers under the Biosecurity Act.
Minister for Agriculture, Food Safety and Biosecurity Damien O’Connor says it is possible further infected properties could be found.
If the cat is not out of the bag, then it is most certainly clawing holes in the side of it which are getting bigger by the day.
Lessons must be learned from this most unfortunate chapter in New Zealand’s agricultural history.
