Cow infected by seal disease

Wellington, Oct 19 NZPA - A rare case of seal tuberculosis (TB) in a cow on Banks Peninsula has surprised Animal Health representatives.

The disease was discovered in the young cow when it was slaughtered in autumn and found to have lesions, but further testing revealed it had originated from a seal.

Canterbury and Marlborough Animal Health district disease co-ordinator Scott Loeffler said it was it was likely the cow would have encountered the seal in its paddock and sniffed it out of curiosity.

"Normally, adult seals are quite aggressive, but young ones are probably not so aggressive and young cattle are very curious so there's more chance of contact," he said.

Mr Loeffler said in initial tests it appeared to be regular bovine TB, but it took further testing and a couple more months to discover it was seal TB.

"In the meantime we put the farmer on movement control and tested the herd and checked for any contact with neighbours," he said.

Mr Loeffler said the seal version was less dangerous and couldn't be spread between cattle and movement control was lifted once the disease was identified.

He said it was a rare situation and that such cases had only ever been discovered two other times -- in Hawke's Bay and on the Chatham Islands.

- NZPA