Source: OSPRI New Zealand
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at OSPRI officially starts today, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
Another 10 seasonal field technicians start later in the year.
OSPRI took over the TBfree national eradication programme in 2013, and testing was done by AsureQuality.
OSPRI general manager disease control, planning and implementation, Simon Andrew, says it now makes sense for the testing to be done by OSPRI, and the transition should be smooth for farmers and the livestock industry.
“Testing in-house is a very important step for OSPRI, as an integrated disease control eradication agency,” he says.
“We’re looking forward to carrying out end-to-end control of TB.
“We’ve recruited a strong team of technicians. The expertise they bring will expand our capability and add value to our other programmes.
“Testing in-house will bring us closer to farmers, which means we can be more responsive to what farmers need from testing, and from OSPRI.”
In any one year, a large proportion of the national livestock population is skin tested for TB. The programme undertook about 1.7 million TB tests in the 2023-24 year.
“We know farmers and our funders, MPI and livestock industry bodies Beef+Lamb NZ, DairyNZ and the Deer Industry Association, want to see us make more efficient use of the levies paid for the TBfree programme,” Simon says.
“We are anticipating the cost savings we gain from doing testing in-house will allow us to increase the investment made into possum control, which is the key to achieving TB eradication.”
Farmers don’t need to change what they do. Routine testing will be scheduled when required and to go through normal channels to book a pre-movement test.
Along with TBfree, OSPRI also manages NAIT, the national system for tracing cattle and deer, and MBfree, the national eradication programme for Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis).
