M. bovis programme property categories

Properties are placed under Active Surveillance when the risk of infection is low. 

This includes farms that:

• sent cattle to a farm which later became infected
• are neighbours an infected farm
• received cattle from an infected farm before we believe that farm was infected.

Testing is necessary to determine the infection status of the cattle. This will require 1 or more rounds of testing for cattle on your property. No movement controls are placed on your property so you can continue normal farming activities while initial testing is carried out.

Where the risk of M. bovis infection is considered high, the property will be put under a movement control Notice of Direction (NOD) – a legal notice issued under sections 121 or 122 of the Biosecurity Act 1993.

This includes properties where:

• there are, or have been, high-risk trace cattle present
• there has been a movement of high-risk goods (infected milk or colostrum)
• a bulk tank milk screening detect result has been produced
• a round of Active Surveillance testing was positive
• a beef and drystock cattle surveillance screening result exceeds our threshold
• a positive commercial PCR test result has been reported. 

The movement control NOD prevents cattle, milk, colostrum, and equipment that’s at risk of spreading M. bovis from being moved off-farm (without a permit) while more testing is carried out.

While restrictions are in place, the following cannot be moved off the farm without a permit (issued through MPI):

• cattle
• milk not being sent for to a commercial processor
• equipment that’s been used in the milking environment or has been in direct contact with cattle.

Permits can be sought from MPI for normal farm management culls. 

In conjunction with the movement control NOD, a Duty to Provide Information notice (section 43 of the Biosecurity Act 1993) may be issued, for the purposes of requesting information or for the maintenance of accurate information.

A census (section 121 of the Biosecurity Act 1993) of all cattle on-farm may also be required. This is a stocktake and involves scanning the NAIT-approved RFID ear tags of all cattle on the property. It is usually completed at the same time as sampling. The census provides an accurate picture of all cattle present on the property, allowing farmers to update their NAIT records. It also allows the programme to confirm the absence or presence of any trace cattle or cattle of interest. 

Active Confirmed Properties are properties that have been confirmed to have M. bovis. They are under a Restricted Place Notice (RP Notice), which stops animal movement and at-risk goods/equipment on and off the affected part of the property.

A Restricted Place Notice (RP), which is the highest level of legal controls will be applied to the property. Some of the main controls include:

• cattle cannot be moved in or out of the RP Notice area without a permit
• all cattle within the RP Notice area will need to be culled (depopulated)
• no at-risk goods/equipment or cattle can be moved out of the RP area, except for cattle being transported to slaughter as arranged by the M. bovis Eradication Programme.

All cattle subject to the Restricted Place Notice will be culled.

Depending on the type of property, it will go through cleaning and disinfection and/or a stand-down period before repopulation is allowed. Once this has been completed, and movement controls lifted, a property becomes a Cleared Confirmed Property and can be repopulated with replacement cattle.

Cleared Confirmed Properties have had M. bovis, and have been depopulated, cleaned and disinfected (and/or stood-down), and had legal notices lifted.