Farmers urged not to be complacent about TB
New Zealand's TBfree programme has made great progress in reducing the impact of the disease on livestock herds, but there’s still a long way to go, according to Beef+Lamb NZ.
However, to protect herds, further work is needed to ensure possum and other predator numbers are kept low enough to eradicate TB in the area, according to Ospri. In this outbreak, there were a total of 17 herd breakdowns of infection, making up a quarter of the total herds in the farming community. The movement control area includes 41 dairy herds.
"It's a significant step fro the community of Hari Hari, neighbouring areas in the West Coast region and the national TBfree plan," says OSPRI's new chief executive Sam McIvor.
"Getting rid of TB in their herds is a huge achievement that takes a systematic approach and coordinated effort over many years. It takes a team effort, and we work with the community and partner agencies to design and implement a disease control response plan that is tailored for their area."
Over the past 30 years, there have been outbreaks in the farmland of Hari Hari following a 5-10 year cycle. Prior to the 2019 outbreak, there were no infected herds for four years.
As part of the disease control plan, major work carried out included regular herd TB testing and significant amounts of possum control on farmland and surrounding areas of Hari Hari and the Waitaha Valley, using both ground and aerial possum control methods.
"Our surveillance of wildlife in the surrounding native bush shows us that the infection problem may remain in the Upper Whanganui, and that we do need to do another round of aerial treatment there to clean up the remaining infection, whilst also maintaining low possum numbers across the whole are," says McIvor.
"TB is a resilient bug, and we need to keep our foot on the pedal to wipe it out."
Over the coming years, disease control work will continue with regular monitoring and testing of livestock and wildlife for any signs of TB.
TB freedom in Hari Hari cattle brought the total number of TB-infected herds across the country down to 12, the lowest number on record. This compares to 1995 when there were an estimated 1700 TB-infected herds.
"The number of infected herds may bounce around a little bit but importantly, it is trending down overall. Ongoing biosecurity vigilance and ensuring NAIT records are up to date are critical ingredients in continuing out progress," McIvor says.
