For the first time in almost four decades, cattle on NZ’s biggest farm are free of the disease.
Cattle on New Zealand’s largest farm are free of bovine tuberculosis for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Tb has been present in stock on the 180,787 hectare Molesworth Station in Marlborough since the 1960s and the property has had continuous infected status since 1972, the longest of any farm in NZ.
But now cattle on the Pāmu Farms-managed station have been declared free of the disease for the first time 37 years after a concerted effort involving neighbouring stations and OSPRI NZ to rid the property of Tb vectors.
OSPRI chief executive Sam McIvor said clearing Molesworth’s stock of Tb was a staged process and a significant step towards achieving Tb freedom.
“While we have completed possum control in the area, we still have some ongoing surveillance work of both wildlife and livestock to confirm that Tb is finally gone.
“The achievement is a massive one, for Pāmu, the dedicated people of Molesworth, especially manager Jim Ward, and all the OSPRI staff and their former colleagues from all those years back,” he said.
Pāmu chief executive Mark Leslie said Pāmu’s size enables it to drive innovation for the benefit of the wider industry, and several significant research projects on reducing and eliminating bovine Tb and control were conducted on Molesworth.
That included testing the use of deer bait and different toxin rates.
Leslie said Jim Ward, who has been on farm for over half the period of infection, was key in the station achieving Tb-free status among its cattle herd.
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