Mycoplasma bovis testing regime to begin

Biosecurity Minister Damien O'Connor.

A testing and tracing regime for Mycoplasma bovis will provide a clearer indication of its spread and potential actions for eradication by the end of February, says Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O'Connor.

The work will include the Ministry for Primary Industries testing three samples of milk from every dairy farm in New Zealand, starting on February 1. Investigators have followed up almost 1000 contacts for possible links to infected properties — with 39 under Restricted Place notices as testing continues and 17 confirmed infected properties.

Tracing animal movements from an infected property takes several days and involves using records from National Animal Identification and Tracing, Animal Status Declarations, trucking dockets and interviews with farmers. Genome sequencing — used to work out whether the strain is the same across all infected farms — takes several months as it involves growing the bacterium from samples.

Forecast loss revised

The Chinese firm Beingmate Baby and Child Food Co Ltd, in which Fonterra has an 18.8 per cent shareholding, has this week revised its previously announced forecast loss of between $75million and $105m to between $170m and $210m.

Although disappointed, Fonterra says the rationale for its partnership with Beingmate still stands. The Chinese market is growing rapidly and within five years forecast demand for infant and baby dairy products will be more than the total for other global markets.

China is one of Fonterra's largest global markets, accounting for $3.4 billion of its sales revenue.

Conferences on

More than 1000 delegates from around the world are expected to take part in three top-ranked animal recording and genetics conferences in Auckland next month.

It will be the first time the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production has held its four-yearly congress in New Zealand, and only the second time in the southern hemisphere. The congress will be combined with the annual conferences for the International Committee for Animal Recording and Interbull.

All three events will be held at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, starting February 7.¦