MEDIA RELEASE
Bovine Tb in the southern Urewera ranges a threat to Bay of Plenty and Gisborne farms
For immediate release: Monday 6 March 2006
An animal disease with the potential to affect New Zealand’s overseas meat trade has been found in Whirinaki Forest
Park, posing the risk of the infection spreading more widely.
Environment Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the Department of Conservation are planning a major pest
control operation to eradicate pockets of infection in a Bovine Tuberculosis front straddling the regional border. They
will do the work on behalf of the Animal Health Board, which is responsible for Bovine Tb management in New Zealand.
Possums are the main carriers, or vectors, of Bovine Tb in New Zealand. It is feared that, if they are not controlled
quickly, they will spread the disease through Te Urewera National Park and infect domestic cattle or deer in adjacent
farmland. This could pose a threat to farms in the Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.
Vector manager Greg Corbett of Environment Bay of Plenty says the size and remoteness of the area make ground control
impractical in most parts of it. Because of this, the proposal is to carry out aerial application of 1080 baits over an
area of about 55,000ha. “It will allow us to immediately and drastically reduce possum numbers,” he says. It will also
have conservation benefits, such as more native birdlife.
Greg Corbett says the baiting operation will be subject to stringent safety precautions and will require the consent of
regional medical officers of health, landowners and the Department of Conservation. He expects the operation will begin
at some stage this winter.
Bovine Tb is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria called Mycobacterium bovis. It primarily affects cattle and
deer. The Animal Health Board’s aim is for New Zealand to be recognised as officially free from Bovine Tb by 2013, in
order to maintain access to high value overseas markets for meat and dairy exports.
Hawke’s Bay has battled outbreaks of Bovine Tb infection for the past five years, with a number of infected herds along
the Mohaka River. In 2004, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council launched a major vector control operation to create a buffer
zone around the park edge near Waikaremoana. Since the mid-1990s, Environment Bay of Plenty has dealt with sporadic Tb
outbreaks in cattle and deer herds east of Taupo.
The Gisborne district has long been regarded as Bovine Tb-free. District conservator Trevor Freeman says the Gisborne
District Council is anxious to retain that status. Any high populations of possums within the district are being
controlled through a modest ongoing pest management programme. “It would have significant financial implications for the
pastoral farming sector and pest management programmes if Bovine Tb should appear in local pest populations,” he adds.
“So it is most encouraging to see the concerted effort being made in Hawke’s Bay and the Bay of Plenty to halt the
progression of infected animals towards our district.”
Late last year, the discovery of two Bovine Tb-infected deer in Whirinaki Forest Park validated earlier findings in the
southern Urewera area. Stuart Hutchings, the Animal Health Board’s District Disease Control Manager for the Bay of
Plenty, says that repeated surveys of wildlife have produced strong evidence of a Bovine Tb front through the upper
Whirinaki and Te Hoe Rivers area. “It is important to act quickly to reduce the numbers of possums to a low level in
order to prevent continued maintenance of the disease within the population and the risk of Tb spread further north,” he
says.
BovineTb.jpg: The proposed pest control operation would cover a 55,000ha area within Whirinaki Forest Park and Te
Urewera National Park.
ENDS
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