The Ministry for Primary Industries says the discovery that a second farm in the North Island has tested positive for Mycoplasma bovis should not be considered a turning point in the response.
MPI's director of response for M. bovis, Geoff Gwyn told The Country's Jamie Mackay that the farm, (Landcorp's Rangesdale Station near Pahīatua), had been identified through tracing and its use of Nait records and was connected to other infected properties through animal movement.
As well as Rangesdale Station, MPI also confirmed two further positive properties in Southland. All three farms are mixed sheep and beef farms and are part of an expected pattern of spread and should not be cause for concern says Gwyn.
"I'd start to panic if we established another network that had no links back to what we currently know, because that would tend to indicate that it was more likely to be endemic than an isolated network and we're not in that place."
The cull of animals infected with M. bovis continues and Gwyn says that any additional properties that test positive will be dealt with on a "case by case decision," by MPI.
