New Zealand is battling Mycoplasma bovis

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, M. Bovis is to be completely eliminated in an ambitious ten-year plan that no country has yet managed to implement. Control of the disease through extensive testing of milk and slaughter cattle from affected farms is progressing well. In April, the ministry said there had been no active case for the first time in weeks. By then, M. Bovis had been found in 279 places. More than 183,000 were killed. head of cattle. Monitoring necessary in the long term However, a routine milk test last week revealed another infection in a herd of dairy cows in the Canterbury area. The eradication program director said the farmer was linked to previously infected farms. Due to the new infected farm, animal movements and other risk events will be tracked. This is likely to result in more farms being placed under movement restrictions to reduce the risk of the disease spreading. While much progress has been made in the fight program, new cases cannot be ruled ...