Owners of farm with Mycoplasma Bovis come forward

The Rural Support Trust's Lon Anderson. PHOTO / File

The owners of a farm infected by Mycoplasma Bovis have had their "entire farm management and lifestyle turned upside down", a meeting of about 300 people was told last night.

Lon Anderson from the Rural Support Trust announced Sharon and Jeremy White as the owners after it was revealed their bull grazing and finishing unit in Patoka, which they have run for less than two years, was a carrier of the disease.

Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Will Foley said it was a "courageous move" by the owners and they "had made the right call."

"They would have been through an emotional roller coaster ride in the last few weeks when they were notified of their own situation and secondly when the public media release came out, and of course they weren't named then but of course in rural communities the rumour mills start."

He said he believed it would have eased the minds of a lot of other farmers around Hawke's Bay, as they now know where the infected farm is.

The lack of information had caused a number of people to become emotional and make assumptions "rightly or wrongly that could have been misinformed."

The disease could cause udder infections, abortions, pneumonia and arthritis, and it has been found that a large contributor to the outbreak of the disease is by stock movement from farm to farm.

Mr Foley urged people to visit the Ministry for Primary Industries website in order to find out more about the disease and in making choices about what they do on their own farms and in their businesses with regard to stock movement.

Mr Anderson said "the emotional impact of having your farm under lock down is not enjoyable experience, you can be assured of that."

"We've also had the family feeling the stigma of the situation and going outside the farm gate to do community things initially was a verity difficult task."

"Now this is not a large-scale, multi-owned corporate dairy farming operation that we are dealing with here. It is a bull grazing and finishing unit owned by a couple of young people with a young family, who have only been on the property for under two years."

Mr Anderson said they were very conscious of playing their part in getting the situation cleaned up.

"They understand the severity of the situation and are coming to terms with what has to be done right now and on into the future," he said.

Mr Foley noted that MPI had already conducted more than 60,000 tests - a "phenomenal amount already, and that it was a matter of continuing to carry out those tests and get results.

The farm in question has been in "lock down" since the disease was found and were under strict control from MPI.