Preparing for a border disease security breach

Being a country heavily reliant on agricultural trade, we live in fear of a major animal disease outbreak which would cripple our economy.

The Reserve Bank estimates a $6 billion hit to NZ's GDP in the first year of a FMD outbreak, and $10 billion in the second!

Rigourous border control and a planned response is imperative for NZ's economic survival reports The Meat Trade Daily.

MAFBNZ Director Post Border, Peter Thomson, said the contract renewed for a further five years an agreement MAFBNZ has had in place since 2005 to hold antigens in a UK-based facility from which a vaccine could be rapidly produced should FMD be detected in NZ. The renewal of the contract reaffirms the long-standing policy within MAFBNZ that a Foot and Mouth Vaccine Bank is a critical part of preparedness for an FMD outbreak, Mr Thomson said.
 
 "Vaccination is one of a range of tools that could be used to control FMD and help ensure NZ could quickly contain an outbreak of FMD while reducing the impact of control efforts, such as slaughter and depopulation of animals, if an outbreak of the disease occurred here," he said.
 
 FMD is a highly communicable disease found almost exclusively in cloven-footed, domesticated and wild animals, and all developed nations maintained vaccine banks to ensure they had the means to combat FMD occurring within their borders.While NZ had never had an outbreak of FMD and remains free of the disease, it is endemic in a number of countries with numerous outbreaks occurring throughout the world each year, especially in Asia and South America.
 
 "Given that Reserve Bank estimates put the impact of FMD on New Zealand's GDP at more than $6 billion in the first year of infection, and around $10 billion in the second, it is essential we have the ability to quickly respond to the disease," Mr Thomson said.