On Farm Biosecurity Services
AsureQuality provides biosecurity surveillance and response services to assist MAF Biosecurity New Zealand protect against exotic pest and disease incursions on farms throughout New Zealand. This includes movement control at stock yards and monitoring control programmes for diseases like tuberculosis.
Biosecurity Services
Movement control at stock yards
Our movement control officers check Animal Status Declaration (ASD’s) to ensure the validity of the TB Free programme. This ensures that controls on the movement of cattle from infected herds and declared movement control areas are adhered to.
Movement Control Officers also ensure that all cattle are correctly identified (displaying both Primary and Secondary identification tags) when being presented at a sale. All non compliant animals need to either be sent back to their farm of origin, or stay in a holding location until the identification is rectified.
Monitoring control programmes
Disease control
This includes the routine surveillance of TB (through the Animal Health Board’s TB testing program) in cattle and deer herds. Additional inspection of carcases at meat plants is carried out to ensure that diseases are controlled.
Vector control
We use surveys to determine the extent of Tb infected wildlife (possums and ferrets) and implement control of Tb-infected wildlife to limit transmission to cattle and deer herds.
Day to day, AsureQuality's capability includes more than 200 invasive pest specialists active in the field - eradicating vermin and weeds, implementing pest management strategies and Tb vector controls, and wiping out commercial and domestic infestations.
Surveillance
- Routine surveillance programmes to investigate the presence or absence of diseases
- Supervision of MAF approved transitional facilities, including zoos and quarantine units for imported stock and germ plasm (embryos and semen, hatching eggs of poultry)
- Working with industry such as the hides, skins and animal fibre industry and aquaculture to develop site response plans, and deployment of Site Response Officers to monitor implementation of the plans during an outbreak
- Operational research and use of expert knowledge to improve New Zealand's effectiveness in exotic disease response and surveillance
Exotic disease responses in the last decade include:
- Varroa bee mite
- Mycoplasma in goats and cattle
- PMWS in pigs
- Psittacine (parrot) pox virus
- Foot and Mouth Disease Hoax - Waiheke Island
- Didymo (Didymosphenia geminata)
- Sea squirt (Styela clava)
- Red Imported Fire Ant
