Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says a decision on whether further herds will be culled to combat Mycoplasma bovis in New Zealand will likely come "by next week".
About 14,000 cows have been culled to date, with a further 7340 earmarked to be killed over the next fortnight in order to combat the disease.
Mycoplasma bovis only affects animals, not humans, but can cause untreatable mastitis, swollen joints and arthritis in cows.
Until it was discovered here in July last year, only New Zealand and Norway didn't have the disease, and Ms Ardern this morning told TVNZ 1's Breakfast that hard decisions are being made or what New Zealand can do to fight it.
"There's good reason for us to try and do everything that we can, but we are having to make sure that we look at all evidence in front of us around what is the best long term plan with the farming community," she said.
"Culling is part of what might be part of a long term eradication plan but there's other things that we can do as well."
Ms Ardern said that culling cows "was a decision early on when we first came in" but said "now we've paused to make sure that we know exactly where it has spread to, so the management plan can take that into account".
"We are really assessing based on the most up to date information we have."
Ms Ardern said the NAIT stock ownership tracking system, which may have helped to know where infected cows were, "wasn't designed particularly well" and said it needed fixing - "this has shown us where those weaknesses are".
About $85 million has been put aside in the Budget for the response to Mycoplasma bovis, but the Prime Minister shied away from talking about government contributions to farmers who had lost stock specifically, but said "we know that we're all in it together".
Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor yesterday said the response to Mycoplasma bovis had been substandard, as he and Ms Ardern met with farmers and Fonterra representatives in Waikato.
"In hindsight, perhaps mistakes may have been made," Mr O'Connor said.
"We've perhaps underestimated the significance of this disease - most other countries haven't reacted because they haven't done much about it - that's why we had a unique challenge."
Ms Ardern yesterday described the outbreak overall as " a devastating situation for farmers and for an industry that is critical for New Zealand".
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