Words by: Anne Lee
Disbelief, shock, sadness, stress, and then hope – it’s been a roller coaster of emotions for researchers and Lincoln University staff after the discovery of Mycoplasma bovis on two of the university research farms.
On September 9 last year Lincoln University’s Ashley Dene Research and Development Station received a positive bulk milk test result but the farm’s manager Jeff Curtis says none of the farm staff could really believe it at first.
Jeff says that while all of the appropriate actions swung into operation, they were still hoping it was a false positive but when the first and then second round of blood testing confirmed the infection, the reality finally hit home.
“That’s when I knew we were in trouble,” Jeff says.
As soon as the Mycoplasma bovis Progamme had reported the bulk milk testing results were above the threshold, the university set up a critical incident management team.
Ashley Dene was put on Notice of Direction by the Programme and as blood test results confirmed the disease present the farm became a Restricted Place and the dreaded yellow notice went up at the gate.
Lincoln University deputy vice-chancellor and professor of dairy production Grant Edwards says as soon as they were alerted to the bulk tank milk screen result the university teams knew there was a chance its other dairy farms could be affected too.
Straight away each farm – the Lincoln University Research Dairy Farm (LURDF) and Lincoln University Demonstration Farm (LUDF) went into a lockdown type scenario which prevented cattle milk and certain high risk equipment from being moved off the farms.
“We took some of the learnings from the Covid-19 level four lockdown and immediately put those measures into place,” Grant says.
Professor Keith Cameron says the university had developed a protocol during Covid lockdown to enable research to continue that involved isolating each farm.
People and vehicles were restricted to operating on one farm only and science teams within each farm stayed separated.
The pandemic meant there was still a strong mindset of dealing with an infectious disease.
Further blood sampling revealed LURDF was also infected with M bovis and that farm too became a restricted place.
Testing is ongoing on LUDF for M bovis.
One of the early actions was to contact neighbours with Keith, Grant and M Bovis Programme staff also personally visiting neighbours.
Keith says neighbours appreciated the chance to talk directly and ask questions and it was clear from the questions Programme staff fielded in particular that there are still a lot of unknowns and misinformation about the disease and its spread.
One of the questions that is still being investigated is how the disease came onto the farms.
Just like Covid, tracking and tracing is a huge component of control and eradication and that job has been enormous, stressful and time consuming.
Although they’ve been able to provide records back to 2016, Grant says there are still no strong threads as to where it came from or when.
Tracing every animal movement over four years so far – from wintering, youngstock rearing and cows bought in – has meant delving into a mountain of records, and thorough NAIT records have helped.
“We’ve even been going back over our animal health records and there’s nothing that looks like symptoms, nothing over past calvings or any time that would send you down the track of suspecting it was in any animal or the herd,” Jeff says.
To this day they’ve had no clinical symptoms in any animal.
Depopulation – culling cows and associated young stock on both farms has begun and will involve more than 1200 animals.
That’s been the toughest thing to face emotionally, Jeff says.
Grant says the university has called on the Rural Support Trust to make sure staff are supported and throughout the process ‘people’ and their welfare have been the number one agenda item at all meetings.
Grant says they’ve been able to complete some of the research that was under way at the time the positive test results came back such as milking frequency studies but all animals will go by the end of March.
It’s a huge loss from a genetics stance and with the loss of longer-term data on animal health and performance history that will go with the animals.
One of the few positives is that with no animals on the farm for 60 days while it’s disinfected, paddock preparation can be done for future research.
Hundreds of suction sample cups are being installed to allow nitrate concentrations to be recorded in paddocks that will be sown in diverse pastures including plantain. The Mycoplasma bovis Programme’s handling of the eradication process has come a long way since the initial discovery of the disease in New Zealand and Keith says throughout process the Programme’s staff have been helpful and given scientifically based advice and the university has valued their support.
Covid parallels
- Track and trace – keep good records not only for tracing animal movements but also for compensation.
- Don’t be complacent – the disease is still here so don’t think it can’t happen to you.
