What is farm biosecurity?

Biosecurity is a set of measures designed to prevent the entry, establishment, and spread of pests and diseases on your property.

Three common areas of risk

• buying livestock;

• breeding livestock;

• visitors (or you) carrying something onto your property on a vehicle, shoes, or clothing.

The most recent large-scale animal disease outbreak in NZ was Mycoplasma bovis. It causes illness in cattle, including udder infections (mastitis), arthritis, abortions, and pneumonia (but doesn’t affect humans, and isn’t a food safety risk). The NZ government chose to eradicate the disease over 10 years (2020 is Year 3).

The numbers so far are enormous:

Farms affected as at May 2020: 58 dairy, 137 beef, 54 other

Where: 68 North Island, 181 South Island

Toll: 154,788 animals culled

Famer compensation: $149.3 million