The need for DairyNZ to have its own biosecurity response capability was highlighted by the outbreak and spread of Theileria in recent years and also the Southland swede event in 2014, DairyNZ’s recently appointed readiness and response manager Chris Morley says.
Both incidents, which were outside the traditional role of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to manage, put pressure on DairyNZ resources with staff pulled off other projects to deal with the response.
DairyNZ had since increased its biosecurity budget and appointed Morley and project manager, biosecurity, plants and pests, Dave Hodges.
A biosecurity breach remained one of the biggest concerns to New Zealand dairy farmers and a significant incident would be extremely costly, Morley said.
A Foot-and-Mouth-Disease (FMD) outbreak could cost the economy $6-$16 billion according to recent figures from MPI and the Reserve Bank.
In addition to the well-recognised risks of FMD, there were an increasing number of other pests and diseases of both cattle and pasture that could appear in NZ or were already here, such as TB, clover root weevil, yellow bristle grass and giant buttercup.
The giant buttercup was already having a $150 million impact with a 36% drop in profitability – costing farmers in affected regions more than $1000/ha.
Minimising the spread and impact of these threats in NZ was as important as keeping other threats out, Hodges said.
Chris Morley – NZ farmers need to have biosecurity basics in place to be ready for any outbreak.
That was partly because NZ hadn’t had to deal with a catastrophic outbreak.
Outbreaks of mad cow disease (BSE), FMD and Bluetongue disease had increased biosecurity procedures onfarm in the United Kingdom, including mandatory stand-down periods after new stock arrive onfarm to help prevent fast moving diseases like FMD spreading before they are picked up.
There was also a higher level of biosecurity expectation that visitors to farms would follow.
Over time, NZ farmers and the industry should be lifting the awareness and expectations for onfarm biosecurity practices to similar standards, he said.
“During the 2001 FMD outbreak in the UK, watching hundreds and sometimes thousands of animals being slaughtered every day and interacting with affected farmers and their families leaves a deep mark on your soul, but it also galvanises you to ensure proper systems are developed, and people capability exists to avoid such a repeat of history.”
DairyNZ will be leading by example and plans boosting its onfarm biosecurity protocols at DairyNZ events next year. Farmers will notice a change in how DairyNZ approaches biosecurity at fieldays and events with the hope more farmers would follow suit, Morley said.
“To go from nothing to quite good is hard, but if we already have the basics it’s much easier to step it up in a response.”
Farmers should be conscious of where stock arriving on to their property were coming from, that visitors’ boots were clean and contractors’ vehicles cleaned before arrival. Getting these protocols in place and making them a habit for all farmers would reduce risk and make it easier to slow the speed of something spreading if there was an outbreak in the future.
With any outbreak of a new disease, weed or pest, early detection could be extremely difficult.
“Doing simple things like ensuring visitors have clean boots reduces the risk of the outbreak occurring on your property and reduces the outbreak spreading between farms before it is detected.”
