Mycoplasma bovis: controls put on two more properties

The notice restricted the movement of animals and some goods on and off the farms until testing was completed. File Photo / Mark Mitchell

Two additional properties in the Waimate district - which neighbour Van Leeuwen Dairy Group farms - have been placed under movement controls following suspicious test results for Mycoplasma bovis.

Yesterday, the Ministry for Primary Industries' director of response, Geoff Gwyn, said the properties were under a restricted place notice as a precaution only and MPI did not believe they represented a ''game-changer''.

The notice restricted the movement of animals and some goods on and off the farms until testing was completed. Results from the further confirmatory tests were expected later in the week.

Planning was under way for the cull of about 4000 dairy cattle from five Van Leeuwen Dairy Group properties in the Waimate district following an outbreak of the bacterial disease which could cause mastitis, abortion, pneumonia and arthritis.

The latest properties were identified through MPI's surveillance programme, which had now tested more than 40,000 samples of milk, blood and swabs.

''This is exactly why we are doing this testing work - to know where the disease is in order to contain and remove it,'' Mr Gwyn said in a statement.

''We do not believe the new suspect properties represent a game-changer. These farms are in the same geographical area to all known infected properties and neighbour Van Leeuwen Dairy Group farms,'' he said.

MPI investigators were still building a picture of how animals on the farms could have been infected, if indeed they were, and what stock movements might have taken place on to the farms.

Mycoplasma bovis was spread through close and prolonged contact between animals and through the direct movement of stock.

The discovery of the new potentially positive properties had not changed MPI's position on that. It did not believe there was a significant risk of disease spread across fences, he said.