Herd tested after Tb found

ROSE HARDING
A Tb-infected cow has been found near Wairoa.
The find is "hugely disappointing," says Regional Animal Health Board chairman Dan von Dadelszen who confirmed bovine tuberculosis had been found in a cow from a property near Frasertown, about 10km west of Wairoa.
A single cow tested positive for Tb at a routine herd test on March 1, and was slaughtered on April 4 after being found positive to a follow-up blood test. Tb infection is strongly indicated by lesions found at slaughter.
The herd has been placed under movement control while further Tb tests are carried out on the herd.
Lesions from the suspect animal will be subject to further laboratory culture to confirm infection. Neighbouring herd owners have been notified.
Mr von Dadelszen said no one knew how the cow had become infected. She had been on the farm only a short while after being bought in a dispersal sale from another farm a few kilometres away.
He said the cow was in an area where possums had not been controlled and they were the likely source of the infection.
The find was particularly worrying because a Tb outbreak had not been found that far north before. An outbreak on a farm in the Ohuka area in 2004 was traced to cattle brought into the area from elsewhere in the North Island.
The latest infection was found in an animal born in the area rather than brought in.
Mr von Dadelszen said the discovery gave added impetus to an airdrop of 1080 poison on the Whirinaki Forest area west of Lake Waikaremoana.
The poison drop was planned for this winter but has been delayed by a budget blowout in the AHB's possum-control programme.
Mr von Dadelszen said at least 12 farms in an area from Woodville to Wairoa were now on movement control because of Tb.
This is up from seven a year ago.
"It is hugely disappointing when the rest of the North Island has tracked down so fast."
Most of the farms were in the Waitara Valley area of Te Pohue after an outbreak was found on the huge Tataarakina Maori Incorporation west of the Mohaka River.
He said the big worry was that Tb would get into possums in the bush hinterland north and west of Lake Waikaremoana where it would be impossible to eradicate.
The Gisborne area has never had Tb.
Animal Health Board national disease control manager Mark Bosson said the AHB had begun a thorough investigation into cattle movements on and off the two properties which are implicated so far.
DNA fingerprinting of the Tb strain will also be carried out to help identify the original source of infection
Mr Bosson says that depending on the results of the initial investigation, AHB is likely to carry out local possum and ferret control.
Mr Bosson said that because the greater East Cape area was mostly free of established bovine Tb in wildlife, AHB would give high priority to investigating and clearing the case.
"It's very important that we contain and eradicate any new Tb infection in this area as quickly as possible."