The slaughtering is futile and senseless

The dreaded words mycoplasma bovis arrived in our vocabulary as a bit of a shock.

Given we were one of about two countries in the world that did not have the disease present, I would have thought at least an air raid alarm would have started sounding relentlessly demanding our attention. But apparently not.

And then, oh my goodness, there seemed to be a bit of it about. Suddenly late in January The NZ Dairy Event (Dairy Week) Chair received a letter from Dairy NZ advising that although the Event was perceived to be low risk in light of the fact that not all links with infected farms had yet been completed, their advice, “...was to avoid co-mingling of cattle between islands.” MPI supported the advice.

Consequently the Event Committee made the decision to request South Island exhibitors to withdraw their show and sale entries from the 2018 event. This effectively excluded some of the top dairy cattle in New Zealand attending the National event. Now more people were sitting up and paying attention. However, the expectation was to reduce the risk of infection until other measures were found to eradicate the disease. And the slaughtering of cattle started in the belief the disease could be eliminated.

Mycoplasma bovis is a bacterial disease commonly found in cattle all over the world. It leads to serious conditions in cattle and therefore constitutes an animal welfare and productivity issue. It spreads from animal to animal through close contact, and between farms through the movement of animals that are infected but may not be showing symptoms. It does not infect humans and presents no food safety risk. There is no concern about eating meat, milk and milk products.

My interest stems from my role as the President of the Royal Agricultural Society of NZ (RAS) which is the umbrella group for the 95 Agricultural & Pastoral (A&P) Shows throughout the country and 65 Breed Societies and associated groups. Our RAS Southern District Council in the South Island met and a number of shows made the decision not to run dairy and or beef cattle classes to minimise any risk.

A major decision for an A&P Show, given one of their prime purpose is to bring country to town, providing an educative platform for showing excellence in agriculture.

I attended a round of meetings throughout the country from Whangarei in the north to Winton in the deep south, where we discussed the issue at our livestock forums.

There was universal concern that the focus was solely on the elimination of the disease, which was looking less and less achievable.

Our Shows, Exhibitors and Breeders wanted to know, given the commercial cattle industry continues to prosper and cattle showing continues unabated and unhindered in dozens of other countries living with the disease, whether there was information as to whether the management of cattle herds was a common denominator in seeing the rapid spread of the disease, and what contingency plans the Government and MPI intend to implement if the disease could not be eliminated.

And then the disease was in the North Island and down the road in Cambridge!  It should be clear to everyone by now, the slaughtering is futile and senseless.

Published in the Franklin County News Thursday 14^th June 2018