The Animal Health Board (AHB) has successfully prosecuted a Waiuku farmer for the illegal sale of cattle from a bovine tuberculosis (TB) infected herd. Geoffrey William Muir pleaded guilty at the Pukekohe District Court today to moving and selling cattle in breach of a restricted place notice imposed by the AHB in June 2008.Muir was fined $30,000 and $140 court costs. The AHB was awarded $10,454 in costs and $2,500 in legal costs. Muir was convicted on four charges of failing to notify the movement of an infected herd, making a false and misleading declaration, moving cattle to a third party’s farm and knowingly selling 157 cattle from a herd that was suspected of harbouring TB reports Scoop.

AHB chief executive William McCook said the prosecution showed the AHB would take action against farmers who fail to abide by livestock movement regulations. “It is clearly unacceptable that one man put his fellow farmers at risk for his own pecuniary gain. Selling cattle from a herd that is suspected or known to harbour bovine TB could have serious consequences for the national TB control programme. “We know a vast majority of the 73,000 cattle and deer farmers in New Zealand willingly comply with movement control restrictions and expect us to come down hard on those farmers who do not.

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Bovine tuberculosis experts from around the world are gathering in Wellington this week to attend the M.bovis 5th International Conference at Te Papa reports Scoop. M.bovis is held every five years in different locations around the world and aims to share world best-practice applied knowledge in tuberculosis control.

Animal Health Board Chief Executive, William McCook, said the event offers a unique opportunity for science and policy experts to share their knowledge and experience in the management and control of bovine tuberculosis. “Every continent is represented among the delegates, demonstrating the growing recognition of the impact the disease can have on trade and economies globally,” he said.

NZ has a long history of Mycobacterium bovis (tuberculosis) infection in cattle and more recently in deer herds. This has been largely driven by wild animal infection, primarily in possums. Over the past 15 years the Animal Health Board has been successful in reducing the number of infected cattle and deer herds from more than 1700 to around 130.

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There are fears the war against bovine tuberculosis could be compromised because of funding changes by regional councils who view it as having been won, says an industry leader. AHB chief executive William McCook said Environment Southland and ECan were both changing their bovine Tb control programmes, with ECan proposing to halve its contribution next year to $250,000.  Environment Southland has proposed redirecting its contribution from direct possum control to encouraging farmers to do it and monitoring the results.

Mr McCook said, in the North Island, the Manawatu-Wanganui Regional Council proposed halving its contribution to $400,000. The Waikato Regional Council last year cut its spending altogether, but after submissions and pressure from farmers proposes spending $800,000 this year. Mr McCook said the battle with bovine Tb had not been won, despite there being just one or two infected herds in Southland reports the ODT. He feared gains achieved so far could be lost due to the funding changes.

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