New post-border biosecurity initiatives

What is the National Bovine Tuberculosis Pest Management Strategy?

The National Bovine Tuberculosis Pest Management Strategy is an $82 million per year programme that involves measures to control bovine tuberculosis (Tb) in cattle and deer herds, and in populations of wild animals that also harbour the disease. Controlling bovine Tb in New Zealand protects our exports of beef, dairy and deer products and reduces production losses in these industries. The Strategy is implemented by the Animal Health Board (AHB). The AHB is an incorporated society that is set up to represent the various funders of the Strategy.

How is it funded?

The government contributes $30m annually to the $82 million National Bovine Tb Pest Management Strategy - with the rest coming from industry and regional councils. The government has agreed in principle to continue this funding until the end of the 2014/15 financial year. The future success of the Strategy depends on an equal spirit of commitment from industry and regional councils. The government’s in-principle commitment will enable other participants to confirm their funding

Why are funding decisions being made now?

The current Strategy is about to be reviewed (as it must be under the Biosecurity Act). Getting in-principle support from Strategy funders enables the AHB to prepare for public consultation. A Proposal document, soon to be consulted on, sets out a future direction for the Strategy that would:

• prevent the expansion of areas where wild animals have Tb;
• test whether full eradication of the disease is feasible;
• eliminate the disease from certain areas; and
• keep the infected herd rate as close as possible to 0.2 percent.

The Strategy funders worked closely with the AHB to develop the Proposal. The review must begin by 30 September 2009.

How does the review process work?

The review starts with the notification of the Proposal document. The public will then have a period of at least 20 working days in which to make submissions on the Proposal.

Based on the submissions, the Minister will determine whether or not to appoint a Board of Inquiry. The appointment of a Board of Inquiry will depend on the level of opposition to the Proposal.

If a Board of Inquiry is appointed, the Board will run a public hearing process and prepare a report with recommendations for the Minister. The Minister will also receive a report with recommendations from MAFBNZ, before making final decisions on changes to the Strategy.

If a Board of Inquiry is not appointed, the Minister will receive a report with recommendations from MAFBNZ, before making final decisions on changes to the Strategy.

What has happened to the idea of full eradication of Bovine Tb from New Zealand?

The current strategy aims for ‘technical freedom’ from Tb. If infected herd rates can be reduced to below 0.2 percent, New Zealand can claim to be technically free from bovine Tb under world animal health rules. Maintaining this, however, would require a significant investment in perpetuity, unless the disease is fully eradicated from infected wild animal populations.

The AHB has achieved some encouraging results, for example with possums, that suggest that complete eradication of the disease, including from wild animal populations, might be possible. The AHB’s model for eradication of the disease has been the subject of an extensive technical review, which concluded that the model is sound, but requires further testing in more difficult real-world conditions before eradication can be confidently pursued.

The option for the future of the Strategy that has been prepared for the Proposal document includes a significant programme to fully test whether eradication is feasible in difficult bush country, and other work to continue with eliminating the disease from easier country. This approach will therefore keep options open. If the results indicate that eradication can be confidently pursued, the Strategy could be amended in future to adopt this objective.

What is surveillance?

Biosecurity surveillance is essentially looking out for pest and disease organisms that could harm New Zealand. It can be scientific and undertaken by government, local government, industry or research providers, or what’s known as “passive” where members of the public are encouraged to look out for certain things. The earlier a risk organism is detected, the greater the chance of eradicating or managing it. It also underpins trade assurances, as for some products, importing countries require government assurance that New Zealand is free of certain organisms.

Why do we need a Strategy?

The Strategy establishes common ground with participants to improve future working relationships, helps define underlying principles that provide a consistent basis for making decisions and forms a firm foundation for action which will improve biosecurity surveillance.

Why is this needed?

MAFBNZ will sign a contract with State-owned Enterprise AsureQuality to build and manage on MAFBNZ’s behalf, a network of central government, local government, industry and commercial providers who can be deployed in biosecurity responses to exotic pests and diseases. The network will provide certainty that in any biosecurity response situation, the required field operations capability will be available and ready to act immediately. It will give us organised access to a wide range of biosecurity capability across all manner of biosecurity response situations and locations.

Do you not have this capability now?

MAFBNZ does not have field operations capability in-house. We have a variety of existing short-term arrangements with commercial providers including AsureQuality that can be drawn on in biosecurity response situations.

What advantages will the new contract bring?

The new arrangement will eliminate delays associated with contracting suppliers in the heat of a biosecurity response. The nationwide network will deliver access to people and equipment that can be called on at a moment’s notice. The network and supporting systems will significantly improve our ability to rapidly scale-up to handle large biosecurity emergencies by leveraging off existing capability rather than building from scratch. This will deliver cost efficiencies. It also provides greater opportunity for interested parties such as regional councils and industry to have their skilled people with local knowledge participate in responses.

How did you arrive at AsureQuality as the supplier for this?

The contract was awarded following a fully contestable Request for Proposal process.