Thread: TB control in Molesworth

1080 on molesworth from 21 may 2021.pdf Latest available info. I doubt they were flying today as damn windy up here and tomorrow is meant to be windy too.

Some great hunting ground getting dropped on. I wonder what numbers will be like post drop in the coming months. It will be interesting to see and get up there to have a look.

Its easy to be negative about this but there is a positive and that is that they are using repellent. Kudos to the local NZDA for their survey and lobbying - I hope everyone supported it (Give a Little page at the time).

TB is a trade issue and its hard to argue against.

I hunt the Haurangis and they are knee deep in 1080 at times but for the last few times with repellent. There are plenty of deer still - probably too many. Like Molesworth, there is plenty of country for the deer to re-seed the poisoned areas from.

On Molesworth even the worst predictions of the drop without repellent have not come to past - the poisoned areas seem to be re-populating? Still a damn shame though that some wonderful trophys ended up dead and rotting.

All is not lost. Onwards and upwards.

One issue @Tahr is that bTb is actually not a trade issue and has not been for decades. Two things;- firstly, many of the countries we export meat to have endemic bTb. Secondly, all our meat is inspected and any carcass with identified bTb is rejected from export production processes: - However those bTb carcasses are trimmed clear of any bTb and distributed to our local consumers domestic butcher markets (us).
Lastly; bTb in properly cooked meat is not infectious.

Isolation of bTb infected farms for a period of fallow combined with slaughter of infected stock would end the problem and at billions less cost than is presently the case.

Originally Posted by Woody

One issue @Tahr is that bTb is actually not a trade issue and has not been for decades. Two things;- firstly, many of the countries we export meat to have endemic bTb. Secondly, all our meat is inspected and any carcass with identified bTb is rejected from export production processes: - However those bTb carcasses are trimmed clear of any bTb and distributed to our local consumers domestic butcher markets (us).
Lastly; bTb in properly cooked meat is not infectious.

Isolation of bTb infected farms for a period of fallow combined with slaughter of infected stock would end the problem and at billions less cost than is presently the case.

All I said was TB is a trade issue and its hard to argue against

The status of TB in our trading partners countries has never been an issue, They mostly have it. Always have.
Its that they will use us having it as a non tariff trade barrier that is a concern. Our trade partners have a maximum TB cattle population incidence criteria for us that we must meet - the consequence is ceased trade.

Pest vectors are a link in the spread of TB. Proven. Not the only cause. But a significant one.

Yes but the export percentage infected herds is below international threshhold. Certainly we need to keep it there ; no disagreement with that objective. However; had NZ isolated herds and not used highly unreliable bTb tests, culled and compensated along with destocking of cattle and replacing with sheep or cropping during fallow periods we could have and can still rid our country of the disease. The mass use of sodium monofluoroacetate could have been and can be avoided. The cost on farmers and NZ taxpayer had been billions and will continue if the failed methods are continued. There are other agendas though IMO.
Pest vectors exist but deer and pigs are end hosts rather than vectors. Vectors like brer possum can still be trapped effectively especially around farm boundaries but IMO has received inadequate government funding. Imagine if $50 million per year was allocated to trapping instead of practically nil? And yet more than this is paid out to poison businesses and gov't departments and NGO's annually.

I just opine that bTb could have been and still could be more efficiently managed and with much less socio economic and environmental harm.

Our bTB rates in herds is well below the global threshold for a country to state they have 'eradicated' a disease. Yet we keep doing it. Spraying money around like it grows on trees. Follow the money.

This is interesting:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles...018.00277/full

It is an admission that they are very slowly identifying and mitigating their failures. Made me laugh when they said eve though wildlife was free of bTb that they would declare an area free even if some farmed livestock in the area were known to have bTb.
IMO the priority should always have been targeting reliable bTb testing and uncompromising rigid movement controls and records , both these actions making the priority target farmed cattle rather than possum. In short, possum was the victim not the perpetrator it hss been made out to be and so the program has been upside down from the getgo unfortunately. They just won't admit it

Tahr you are wrong about the worst predictions with no repellant never happened, it did and was abhorrent. I saw it and will never forget it and it should not happen ever again. More possums survived in that last drop than deer. As well this new repellant kills 60% of deer so time will tell as there is a pre and post drop survey.

Originally Posted by Puddleduk

Tahr you are wrong about the worst predictions with no repellant never happened, it did and was abhorrent. I saw it and will never forget it and it should not happen ever again. More possums survived in that last drop than deer. As well this new repellant kills 60% of deer so time will tell as there is a pre and post drop survey.

@Puddleduk Of course it was abhorrent, and a shameful disaster. My comment about worst predictions was about the population bounce back, which seems to be better than the dire predictions.

"On Molesworth even the worst predictions of the drop without repellent have not come to past - the poisoned areas seem to be re-populating?"

Repopulating slowly yes but that area is to be poisoned again next year so even with repellent will take another hit. Hopefully it will be its last....

Saw plenty of deer in the area of the last drop this year in the roar. Can't complain.

Was on the tops of St James this morning and could see the choppers with buckets underneath all morning starting the green rain

Yep I was on Isobel and could clearly see them all morning too