I just read the information in the item “Mycoplasma outbreak hits New Zealand” in the June 11 Hoard’s Dairyman Intel. The item is not quite correct. Please see the latest report published on the number of cases and affected animals as it relates to Mycoplasma bovis.

The article says the culling could take out 3 percent of the national herd. That is not correct as the 150,000 head is the top number I have heard quoted as the potential cull (to date the cull is a lot less than that), includes beef cattle and young stock (heifers and calves), not just the national dairy herd. The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) is currently estimating a cull of 126,000 cows from 190 farms. There are around 20,000 farms with either beef or dairy cattle in NZ.

Obviously we need to eradicate it from all cattle – and to date roughly half the infected herds are beef.

— Raewyn Densley, New Zealand

Editor’s note: New Zealand has roughly 6.5 million dairy cows and the 3 percent culling level was based on the country’s lactating cow herd.