Farmers frustrated by disease testing

MPI plans to keep up sampling, monitoring, testing and surveillance to eradicate the disease through containment. / File photo.

Frustration is evident among farmers as they await results from cattle being tested for the bacterial disease Mycoplasma bovis, without a timeline able to be given.

About 140 people attended a public meeting at Papakaio near Oamaru this week for the latest update on the outbreak confirmed on two Van Leeuwen Dairy Group properties in the Waimate district.

The Ministry for Primary Industries' regional controller Murray Pridham said there was no answer on how long it would take to get results. The testing programme was ''quite complex'' and took ''quite a bit of time''.

Only one laboratory was available to use but efforts were being made to get other laboratories involved.

Farmers speaking at the meeting, and others spoken to by the Otago Daily Times, questioned why the process could not be quicker.

''I know they are trying their best, but have they just got enough resources?'' North Otago dairy farmer Peter Borrie asked.

Borrie wondered why samples could not be flown to Australia or even the United Kingdom, if necessary.

Mark Jellyman, who farms on the Waitaki Plains, said there were a lot of questions still to be answered and he had expected some results by now.

Keith Adams runs a beef breeding unit which shares a boundary with one of Van Leeuwen Dairy Group's farms, but not one of the two that returned positive tests.

He wanted to protect his herd and did not think beef farmers realised ''what could happen yet''.

Pridham was confident extra laboratories would be able to deal with issues and did not think sending samples to Australia would be ''any great benefit at this stage''.

The plan for the next week was to keep up sampling, monitoring, testing and surveillance to eradicate the disease through containment.

Incursion investigator Tom Rawdon said a national bulk milk survey would be undertaken.

Walter Cameron believed it was in the best interests of New Zealand agriculture to destroy stock on the group's farms. He wanted a show of hands from those attending, who wanted to see that happen, saying it was a major event in New Zealand for dairy and beef farmers.

Former Federated Farmers national president William Rolleston said it was ''far too early'' to have that discussion, while Hunter dairy farmer John Gregan said it was ''not appropriate''.

Rawdon did not believe that Mr Cameron's viewpoint was shared by everyone. ''We will work through a very strict assessment process on each of these farms and try and save as many of them [cows] as we can,'' he said.