Ivan is a senior veterinarian
& our production animal
business manager.
National Beef Cattle Surveillance for Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) is an important programme for providing evidence that M. bovis is not widely distributed among beef and dry stock cattle in New Zealand. As New Zealand moves towards the tail end of eradicating M. bovis, ongoing surveillance is important to show ‘freedom from disease’.
It is a relatively simple process to take part in the programme, as blood samples are usually collected when cattle are yarded for some routine management practice like scanning.
There is no cost to the farmer for this sampling process, and, in fact, participating in the scheme may well subsidise and reduce costs of getting service providers on farm, because the scheme provides some travel payments to blood testers. In addition, extra tests may be carried out on the blood samples collected, such as trace element testing or other disease surveillance such as BVD testing, but at usual lab testing rates.
Sampling is also done on cattle sent to meat processing plants and before entering feedlots, so many farms may be tested whether they want to be or not.
The blood samples are used to test for antibodies to M. bovis. The test is looking for suspicion of disease, rather than individual animals with disease, and even being positive for antibodies does not mean an animal or herd is infected. In fact, after several hundred thousand tests, 99.9% of samples have shown a non-detect. A positive antibody result or ‘detect’ is followed up with further testing, and to date none have been positive.
You may ask yourself, “Why bother?” Firstly, as stated above, it is necessary for NZ Inc to show freedom from disease, so it is for industry good. Secondly, worrying that the disease may be found on your property is probably not a sensible mindset because, if present, it would most likely be found out at the works anyway.
Remember, the testing does not cost you financially, and it can be worked in with routine farm procedures. When booking in routine procedures such as pregnancy testing or trace element testing, consider doing an M. bovis screen as well.
