Animal Health Board Welcomes New Possum Study
The Animal Health Board (AHB) welcomes a new study by Landcare Research, which shows that possum fur trapping and pest
control goals do not always match.
The role of the Animal Health Board is to control – and eventually eradicate – bovine tuberculosis as efficiently and
cost-effectively as possible. Controlling possums is a critical part of this: in high TB-risk areas over 70 per cent of
new herd infections can be traced to possums. We currently use a combination of trapping, hand-laid toxins and aerial
control – an approach that is keeping us on target in terms of eradicating the disease from the wild. From a TB control
perspective, even if fur trapping was subsidised, it would be far too risky for New Zealand to rely on fur trappers for
critical disease management-driven pest control.
The AHB has recently engaged with the New Zealand Fur Council to identify opportunities for fur recovery as part of our
possum control operations. However, our primary concern must always be to keep possum numbers low enough to break the TB
cycle. Any fur recovery activities would need to be subordinate to this goal. A major advantage of our current control
strategy is that we can be confident we are consistently achieving the extremely low possum densities needed for
effective TB control. As soon as there is a conflicting objective such as the recovery of fur, the pest control outcome
can be compromised. Stringent performance monitoring would need to be put in place, at a significant additional cost.
Some of our ground control contractors do recover furs, but this is something they need to negotiate with their employer
as it has the potential to reduce efficiency and performance – time spent plucking possums is time not spent checking
traps or laying baits.
While the study highlights some theoretical socio-economic benefits of trapping over aerial control, the reality is that
the AHB is already using trapping and ground control techniques on up to 90 per cent of our operations annually, and
only use aerially-applied toxins where other methods are impractical. Fur Council representatives readily admit that
much of land controlled by the AHB is already well below economic levels for the possum fur trade. On top of this, the
AHB provides a steady source of work for hundreds of local pest controllers across the country. In the 2012/13 financial
year, the AHB expects to spend more than $40 million on TB possum control. Much of this money will end up in struggling
rural economies. In many areas, we already struggle to find enough people with the skills to carry out trapping and
ground control across often challenging terrain.
· Read the full research paper here
For more information on the work of the Animal Health Board, visit www.tbfree.org.nz.
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