Over 1 point 4 million litres of milk production has been lost this year.
That’s because the dairy industry has lost more than 20 percent of milk producing cows due to tuberculosis.
It is estimated the dairy industry has lost close to 2000 milk producing cows to Bovine Tuberculosis.
This equates to some 24 percent of Fiji’s stock.
The industry is left playing catch up to boost milk production.
“The larger farms which are producing the bulk of milk have really been affected by TB. In one farm, they lost more than half of their productive animals. So it is very difficult to sustain the industry. These farms need rehabilitation and they need it quick,” said the CEO of Fiji Corporative Dairy Company Limited, Sachida Nand.
The Company has procured a TB testing kit to conduct gamma interferal test on productive cows.
The 10 thousand dollar kit has been given to the Agriculture ministry to conduct tests on a trial basis.
“We are getting condemnations at the abattoir so which means Bovine TB is there but on some of the animals, we are reading Avian TB, so we don’t need to cull these animals. So even if we have only 5 to 10 percent of Avian that could be saved. So that is the ultimate objective”
So are locally produced milks safe for consumption?
“Milk is processed, there is no raw milk sold to the consumers and all milk to consumers are safe for consumption. There is no two ways about it”
This is not the only factor resulting in the decline of milk production.
Some 15 farms have also been closed this year due to land lease issues.