Check for approved ear tags when buying cattle or deer.

Many millions of dollars have been spent in reducing the incidence of Tb in New Zealand. Most of this money has gone on the herd testing of farmed animals and infected vector control (e.g. possum and ferrets).

High standards of inspection in the meat industry and the pasteurisation of milk are the final checks in the process to ensure our meat and dairy products are Tb free. The main issue with Tb is the cost to farming and the risk to our overseas trade.

Control of bovine Tb is done under a National Pest Management Strategy managed by the Animal Health Board. Its primary objective is to reduce the annual prevalence of Tb infected cattle and deer herds to 0.2 percent or less. The 0.2 percent figure is the international benchmark for a country to be officially recognised as being free of bovine Tb.

The Animal Health Board (AHB) is represented in your area by a local committee whose four core members consist of Federated Farmers of New Zealand’s Meat & Fibre, and Dairy sections, the deer industry and your regional council.

Anyone owning cattle or deer has a legal responsibility to register their animals/herd. This can be done by calling 0800 4 TB INFO (0800 4 824 636).

This call centre will answer all your questions regarding the free registration process and your responsibilities in regard to animal identification and related matters such as Animal Status Declaration [ASD] forms, tagging of animals, tag types and suppliers.  Broadly speaking the current Tb strategy uses a “trace-back” system to identify infected animals and that is why registration, the tagging of all farmed cattle and deer and the use of the Animal Status Declaration forms are so vital to its success.

If an animal belonging to you is found to have Tb, its history needs to be traced back so appropriate steps can be taken. It may be that the Tb came from a vector, a carrier or that the animal has had Tb for several years and this has only been detected at slaughter. There is no stigma connected to having Tb infected animals. It could happen to any one of us.

The basic rules are:

•  All farmed cattle and deer animals should be registered with the Animal Health Board.

•  Any cattle or deer over 30 days old must be correctly tagged when leaving the farm.

•  All cattle and deer must have a correctly filled in Animal Status Declaration form to accompany all off farm movements and I strongly advise you to read and ensure that this form is understood and completed before agreeing to any purchase/leasing/grazing of cattle or deer animal.

What to look for when buying, leasing or grazing cattle or deer over 30 days old:

•  Two approved ear tags. The primary tag is yellow has a barcode and a unique supplier number. It will also include a large animal identification number and, possibly, may have a year of birth.  These are for personalised use and are not part of the legal aspect of the tag.

•  A secondary tag (which may be metal or plastic) must also have the same unique supplier number. There are also other specific types of tags such as direct to slaughter, replacement tags -and infected herd tags - if in doubt ask.

Do not accept any excuses.

The Animal Status Declaration form is a statuary declaration and must be completed and signed. Check all the required information is there.

The Terms C1 - C10 indicates the number years that a herd has been confirmed clear of Tb after testing. C1 is the first step and may indicate that person is a trader in cattle/deer. C5 is considered as an excellent indicator of an acceptable status and C10 is the top rank.

The letter S indicates suspended status and the letter I indicates infected status. Find out the potential problems with these latter classes of stock before purchasing or accepting them for grazing. Ring 0800 4 TB INFO (0800 4 824 636).

When you sell, the same rules and standards apply.  All animals going to sale yards or slaughter will be checked on arrival for correct tags and a correctly completed Animal Status Declaration form. Non compliance may result in the animals being returned to you at your expense.

An Animal Status Declaration form is a legal document.

The Tb strategy is reasonably simple to comply with. Together we can beat Bovine tuberculosis.

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