More Fiji brucellosis cases frighten dairy industry

Fiji's Ministry of Agriculture says it has now detected bovine brucellosis in a farm in Tailevu South. The ministry says the farm is more than 100 kilometres from Tailevu North, where the bacterial infection resurfaced after it was thought to be eradicated over 10 years ago. The ministry suspects it was a result of a breeding program amongst farmers in the two areas.Last time we reported on this outbreak, the bacterial disease had caused the slaughter of around 200 cows and authorities banned milk from the area to prevent it being passed on to humans.Presenter: Geraldine CouttsSpeaker: Dr Robin Achari, Principle Veterinarian with Fiji's Department of Primary Industries abcwire.send-mungmung.ra
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ACHARI: The infection has been contained but we are discovering that the farmers in the same Tailevu North - Wainivesi area is coming up. More farms are showing up the sign of brucellosis and are detecting serum brucellosis in the farms, but it is still maintained in Tailevu North - Wainivesi. There is one sporadic case in another area, which is a link with one of the farms in Wainivesi the Tailevu area.COUTTS: So you're not too concerned that it showed up in Tailevu South now?ACHARI: At the moment no because there was only a couple of animals from his whole herd that tested positive to serum and we have removed those animals. We are trying to establish if there was a link. He is a son-in-law of one of the farmers in Tailevu so he must have used a bull or a heifer from his farm. So we are still trying to establish that at this point in time.COUTTS: Well last time we spoke around 200 cows had been slaughtered. How many more have been slaughtered since then?ACHARI: We have a total of 282 animals that need to be culled. We have started the process of culling and we have already completed 134, the rest are yet still to be done, yet to be completed.COUTTS: Now we've read in the local news in Fiji and on ABC Radio Australia News that some people are starting to buy imported goods because they fear using the meat slaughtered from these cows and using the dairy produce. What's happening there?ACHARI: Yes the media in Fiji have twisted the stories around so much that it's created a bit of fear in everybody, so we are working very hard through our information ministry to get the right message out to the consumers. I did not receive any reports of somebody trying to import but I will follow that up later. COUTTS: Well they're eating imported products in place of the local products is, I think, what the story is saying, because they fear eating their local products?ACHARI: This is news to me. I went round with the Rewa dairy company which is the largest dairy company in Fiji and also the Fiji Meat Industry Board and until now we have not faced anything. I think people who are trying to cash in on this somehow to get cheaper products into the country.COUTTS: Well, I suppose the theory is an issue isn't it? Because if people can catch it, then people are going to naturally assume that if people can catch it from cows that have got brucellosis then it must be passed on through the milk and the meat?ACHARI: Yes, the message that we are trying to put across is that people will catch it only if they come into contact with the aborted material. The carcass is safe because the infection is contained in the uterus, in the reproductive system of the animal. So when we, the ministry, are doing their meat inspections they remove the reproductive system intact without contaminating the carcass at all. But the milk - most of the farmers that we have found to be infected or reacting to this brucellosis, all that milk goes through a pasteurisation process so the milk is pasteurised so the bacteria is killed. So the chance of getting it from the milk is nullified because all our milk is pasteurised. And the way we eat our meat in Fiji we hardly have a rare barbecue or rare steak. We mostly cook our meat to death so the chances of bacteria surviving is minimised.