The Ministry for Primary Industries' Incident Controller for M Bovis Response Dave Yard spoke to The Country today after news broke that there are now 20 farms infected with the cattle disease.
Yard says that while it is disappointing that M. bovis has spread, it is not unexpected.
The latest confirmed outbreaks are in the Waimate and Gore districts and were found due to MPI's testing says Yard.
"This is firm evidence as we have always said that the movement of animals presents the greatest risk of transmission of disease because the new infected farms have received animals from known infected properties."
