Confirmed Property identified in Mid Canterbury

A Confirmed Property has been identified in Mid Canterbury, after being detected as part of our background beef and drystock cattle surveillance. This is the first confirmed property to be identified through this surveillance programme, which provides assurance that M. bovis is not widespread in beef and drystock properties. 

The property was confirmed following a positive result at slaughter, when it was already cleared of cattle. It is now in the process of being cleaned and disinfected. This will be followed by a mandatory 60-day stand-down period with no animals permitted on the property.

The Programme is carrying out cattle movement tracing as is standard practice when a property is confirmed infected. This may lead to follow-up work on some farms as we work to understand the infection source. However, the risk of forward transmission is mitigated.

Preliminary genomic analyses indicate that the infection on this property is very similar to sequences obtained from other recently infected farms in the region and is part of the Clade 2 infection. Further genomic analyses are under way to help us understand the infection source.