The M. Bovis outbreak will not halt the dairy industry's annual Moving Day, when thousands of farmers and cattle move around the country, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor has confirmed.
"Its not feasible in terms of animal welfare issues. A lot of cattle get shifted, thousands and thousands. They're depending upon going to new properties, often for feed. If that was to be restricted then there would be a massive challenge to actually try to get feed to them in the short term," O'Connor told reporters today.
Despite the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) trying to track cattle movements for the past few months since M. Bovis was confirmed in New Zealand, O'Connor said he didn't anticipate a spike in cases following Moving Day.
"The chances are there may be some of those herds that have received animals from [infected] properties and we haven't been able to identify that. But the offset of that is having thousands and thousands of animals that would be starving because they haven't been able to get on to new property."
Moving Day, or Gypsy Day, occurs on June 1. It is the annual event when farmers take their stock to new properties, either for winter grazing or because of new sharemilking contracts.