Incursions of foreign animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease could potentially be devastating for farmers, livestock industries and New Zealand’s economy.
Traceability is an important part of preparing to respond to potential incursions and the Mycoplasma bovis response showed how important it is to quickly trace animal movements to find, contain and control infectious diseases.
The Independent Review of the Mycoplasma bovis Programme and previous reviews of New Zealand’s readiness for disease responses have highlighted the need for improved traceability of movements of sheep.
B+LNZ is conscious of the need to consider cost-benefits associated with any traceability system and based on farmer feedback, does not support individual EID tagging of sheep as the best method of traceability.
The red meat sector is therefore looking at practical, cost-effective ways to strengthen sheep traceability.
Mob-based tracing remains the most efficient and appropriate system for sheep, given their lower disease risk profile and the fact they are moved far less frequently than cattle.
Currently, livestock movements are recorded using either paper Animal Status Declarations (ASDs) or electronic ASDs which provides some degree of mob-based traceability.
While paper works, its use slows down investigators during a fast-moving disease response because tracing every movement relies on a physical paper trail.
To address this, B+LNZ and the Meat Industry Association, with MPI’s support, are investigating options for phasing out the use of paper to record movements of groups of sheep and moving to completely electronic systems.
This would allow farmers to record movements of sheep mobs online or via a phone app, significantly improving speed and accuracy during a disease investigation, without introducing individual sheep tagging or adding unnecessary cost.
OSPRI is supporting the work with its expertise and existing platforms. The focus is on building on what already exists, keeping costs down and ensuring that any transition is as smooth and straightforward as possible for farmers.
We will keep you updated as this work progresses.