Reductions in Movement Control Areas - a step in the right direction
In the upper South Island and West Coast, Movement Control Areas (MCA) have been reduced, which is good news for farmers in the area, says OSPRI.
As of 1 March 2023, the reduced areas include a portion of North Canterbury (to the south of Kaikoura) and significant portions of the West Coast (approximately 1 million hectares) affecting herds from south of Hokitika to the Paparoa Range. This change will result in 683 herds no longer requiring pre-movement testing, or animals to be tested down to 3 months of age.
When making the decision to revoke part or all of the Movement Control Area, we calculate the prevalence of disease in herds each year over a three-year period to make sure it consistently falls below the 1% threshold, says OSPRI’s Senior Veterinarian Kevin Crews. “This requirement is coupled with the risk assessment work that vets do to ensure that any wildlife in the area that was spreading TB to livestock is absolutely under control. In other words, we have done a thorough investigation spanning a three-year period to make sure that the prevalence of disease in herds is less than 1% each year. In the past three years, we did 144,418 pre-movement tests on the West Coast in the affected area, and there have been no infected herds found during that period, from pre-movement testing, or post-movement testing.”
In the areas that are being revoked there has been only one infected herd in three years which was attributed to movement from another herd, not from possum infection.
Movement restrictions are based on the number of infected herds in an area as well as disease risk from wildlife, mainly possums. Due to the nature of TB as a disease, it is difficult to predict in advance when the (MCA) can be reduced, "Any reduction depends on how effective possum control and disease eradication is from individual infected herds. It must also consider the lag time between critical pest control operations being carried out and residual TB being detected and removed.”
West Coast OSPRI committee member and farmer Andrew Stewart says these movement control changes will make the logistics of selling animals a bit simpler as well as dealing with adverse events like flooding. "At the moment we have to organise the TB test before you can move the animals. From 1 March, the logistics will be a lot simpler. I can understand some farmers who have had TB a long time might be a bit nervous, but OSPRI have put their checks in place and the vets wouldn’t have made this decision lightly so I’m confident it’s a decision that will hold."
"The fact that we are able to significantly reduce the MCA boundaries on much of the upper South Island and parts of the West Coast is testament to the TBfree programme really working the way it should,” says Crews.
Movement Control Areas (MCAs) were introduced to minimise the risk of TB spreading through the uncontrolled movement of infected livestock from ‘clear’ status herds located in areas that are considered to have an elevated risk of infection from local wildlife. Now that the risk is less we can reduce pre-movement testing.