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.

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.

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. 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."

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 know when the (MCA) can be reduced, says OSPRI’s Senior Veterinarian Kevin Crews. "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.

"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."

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.

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