About 250 people are in Dargaville's Northern Wairoa Hall at a Mycoplasma bovis information meeting organised by the Ministry for Primary Industries after the first confirmed case of M.bovis was found in Northland last week.
MPI is not saying where the infected farm is, but the Northern Advocate understands it is in
the Kaipara, hence the Ministry holding the meeting in Dargaville.
The meeting opened with Dr Kelly Bourke MPI epidemiologist incursion investigator addressing the crowd.
MPI has assured Northlanders that livestock not in close proximity to a farm in the region infected with M.bovis are not at risk of the disease.
An unnamed property in Northland with about 50 beef cattle tested positive for the bacterial cattle disease last week - the first time M. bovis has been found in the region. The only clue MPI gave was that the infected property was a dry stock beef farm.