Richard Curtis, OSPRI Research Project Manager: OSPRI, and its predecessor the Animal Health Board, has done research for decades and I think we're coming to a point now where we're very much focused on operationalising the research that we're doing. It is far more applied. We've got the field teams here today and we're starting to push that out to those people at the coal face.
Sam Vye, co-founder of Envico Technologies: Envico have now been working with OSPRI for about a year now and we've been working really collaboratively to work out what the problems are that technology might be able to solve. Here we build big, heavy-lift drone systems, unmanned helicopters, suitable for conducting conservation biosecurity work as well as smaller systems, or even machine-learning within drones and automated ground devices.
Cameron Baker, co-founder of Envico Technologies: Yes, so the technology's been great so it's intuitive, they're smart units, they're quite easy to operate so you can use this technology straight out of the box with some or minimal training. We've been developing payload systems specific for drones. What we wanted to do was just scale the ability of what drones were capable of spreading, and also utilising the precision or accuracy that comes with that technology as well. In terms of impact or the data you actually get back from these tools it is immense. What that means is that they can effectively pull out a small drone from their vehicle, and go and monitor a small pocket of land up to about 100 hectares and then identify if there's a need to go there and do applications or not.
For the possum spitfire, what we've developed is a fence line tool that can effectively be placed out in the forest, or into another environment and last 12 months or for 100 shots.
Richard Curtis: What is exciting is the speed with which hopefully with which we're getting feedback in terms of what's there and the impact we're having. That speed should go up no end I think. Now that we've got a closer goal of eradication of TB in herds in 2026, we're ramping up the speed with which we're needing to eradicate this disease. If we can get to a place where we can survey an area using a drone — cover 1000s of hectares in no time at all with a thermal camera, bring it back, pretty much count the number of possums there, that's a real game changer for us. I hope that we can start operationalising all of that this year. We're going to start trialing their spitfire trap — very exciting times actually, very exciting.
Our disease management research strategy
Our research strategy for the next 5 years focuses on projects that will help us meet our goal of eradicating TB in livestock by 2026 and possums by 2040. Find out what we plan to do.
Eradicating TB
The National TB Pest Management Plan (NPMP) aims to eradicate TB biologically from New Zealand by 2055. The milestones in the plan include cattle and deer being free of TB by 2026, and possums by 2040.
Research strategy 2023 to 2027
In the past our research focused on gaining knowledge through long-term projects. Because we aim to have cattle and deer free of TB by 2026, the emphasis will move to projects that have defined short-term outcomes, which help us meet this goal.
Our research focus
Over the next 5 years we'll invest in research that fills gaps in our knowledge and capability. We plan to work closely with staff and external stakeholders to design research projects aimed at operational efficiencies and innovations.
We plan to focus on:
- finding better ways to understand how many possums are in an area, especially when numbers are low or the land is difficult to access. We need this information to decide what level of control is needed or if the area can be declared disease-free
- researching cost-effective alternatives to 1080
- working out how to accurately and rapidly identify TB lesions in slaughtered animas. Being able to do this will provide an effective disease surveillance network throughout the country and help reduce the cost of livestock testing.
Collaboration and technology support our research
We're working collaboratively with:
- Department of Conservation
- Predator Free 2050 Ltd (PF2050)
- community groups
- technology companies.
Technology offers us options that previously didn't exist. Tools, such as thermal cameras, drones and remotely monitored lures with artificial intelligence (AI) software, will benefit our work. For example:
- AI can identify individual animal species and provide us with increasingly accurate surveillance data in remote places, and
- remotely monitored lures (such as infra-red cameras) can provide long-term monitoring of possums in bush after control operations.
Our past research
Over the years, our main research effort and investment has gone into finding more efficient and cost-effective ways to control bovine TB. Since 2000, we have invested in research to:
- determine the most effective rates to spread aerial 1080 at — to minimise the quantity of 1080 used while still controlling possums
- examine alternatives to 1080 and improve its effectiveness as a bait
- find better ways to survey possums and discover how disease spreads through other species like pigs and deer
- develop several software modules that let our Disease Managers design and plan annual disease-management strategies, and assist in declaring areas disease-free (proof of freedom)
- understand how bovine TB spreads and affects livestock
- make herd testing for TB more accurate and efficient
- trial TB vaccines that would help with managing disease in livestock.
Benefits of our research
Our research provides benefits beyond the TB eradication programme. It contributes to the science underpinning livestock and wildlife animal health management, and disease detection, surveillance, monitoring and control. It also brings significant biodiversity benefits through our pest control programmes, and contributes to the goals of Predator Free 2050.