Mbovis confined to one feedlot
Nearly $43 million over four years in new biosecurity funding has been unveiled during a pre-Budget announcement in Hamilton.
There was also confirmation yesterday that another $68m in already allocated funds will be spent next financial year to combat the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis, which has required a huge response over the past four years.
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor, who was attending an event with Prime Minister Jacinda Adern at Te Rapa, said the extra $42.9m for biosecurity was was over and above existing funding.
It was aimed at better protecting the country’s vital primary sector and native flora and fauna.
‘‘New Zealand’s flora, fauna and livestock are the foundations of our primary sector, economy, rural communities and our economic security,’’ O’Connor said.
‘‘The world is reopening from the pandemic. With increased travel alongside a warming climate we face challenges from pests and diseases, which requires further investments to strengthen our biosecurity.’’
O’Connor said New Zealand has a world-class biosecurity system, but the country needed to ensure it could meet the challenges presented by increased cargo freight, and by pests such as the brown marmorated stink bug.
‘‘We’ve shown with Mycoplasma bovis what we can achieve together when an incursion happens, but we want to reduce risk as much as possible to prevent the costs and effects for individual farmers and growers.’’
It was also revealed that M bovis was now confined to one beef feedlot in Ashburton. ‘‘We are chasing down the last remnants . . . and that’s a credit to all involved,’’ O’Connor said.
At last count some $660m had been spent over four years tackling M bovis out of an allocated funding pool of just under $870m.
The $68m for 2022-23 – to cover things like monitoring, testing and outbreak response – is about the same as the current year. It was expected M bovis would continue to pop up despite progress made.
Ardern thanked the agriculture sector and farmers whose stock had been culled to help eradicate M bovis. ‘‘This is a milestone but not the end point for M bovis. The sacrifice has been great . . . for those who’ve had to cull herds.’’