Biosecurity

We all have a role to play in biosecurity protection

AgResearch senior scientist biocontrol and biosecurity John Kean told the recent Future Farmers conference in Palmerston North that insects, nematodes, bacteria and pest plants were causing "hundreds, if not thousands, of millions of dollars every year in costs and lost production."

A slide he displayed showed that seven pest invertebrates alone (in descending order of destructiveness - grass grub, black beetle, nematodes, porina, slugs, clover root weevil, Argentine stem weevil) were costing the dairy and sheep and beef industries a combined total of at least $4.4 billion a year.

The costs of Mycoplasma bovis are at $90 million and climbing. And we still don't know exactly how it arrived in New Zealand.

This is a wake-up call to some farmers to step up their own measures to protect their herds and livelihoods, cleaning down machinery and the boots of visitors that come on farm, instituting a buffer zone on perimeter fences, and so on.