New Legal Requirement To Record Raw Milk Movement
Disease eradication agency OSPRI is alerting farmers to new legal requirements which apply from 1 July 2025 to keep records of the movement of raw milk on and off farm.
OSPRI's national manager, Mycoplasma bovis, Mackenzie Nicol, says it's known that M. bovis can spread between properties when raw milk is used for cattle feed, so, from 1 July, the new National Pest Management Plan for M.bovis requires anyone receiving raw milk on to a farm with the intention of feeding it to cattle, to accurately record it.
"Farmers and industry have worked so hard to eradicate M.bovis, what we are doing with this requirement is all about closing one of the last loops, where we know there is risk of disease spread. It makes good sense to be vigilant.
"We know this change will affect businesses transporting raw milk to be used for cattle feed, the farmers receiving it, and will rely on dairy processing operators offering up information about the milk they supply.
"Luckily most of this information is already recorded - so the requirement should fit with good farm biosecurity practices," Mackenzie says.
To help with the record-keeping, OSPRI has created a template form which can be downloaded from its website.
"When you use our form, you'll be noting down all the information we need to collect, like the date and time of delivery, where the raw milk came from, how it got to your farm and how much was delivered.
"It would also be worthwhile to make notes on sales invoices or receipts for raw milk purchases, the farm diary, or a driver's logbook.
"We need to do the best we can to keep track of all the risks we know of when it comes to extremely tough diseases to fight, like M.bovis," Mackenzie says.
Recording these movements could also play an important role in containing and limiting the spread of other infectious diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease or bovine viral diarrhoea.
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Otago Daily Times
22-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Tb in Lindis: Ospri control of movement criticised
Possums are the main source of bovine Tb in New Zealand. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY Upper Waitaki farmers say Ospri has "dropped the ball" on bovine tuberculosis control in the area and called a public meeting last week to seek answers after infected calves were sold at a calf sale in Omarama earlier this year. Ospri — a partnership between primary industries and government — manages the TBfree national programme which aims to achieve Tb freedom in livestock by next year. Ospri representatives attended the meeting in Omarama on Friday. Last week affected farmer Dave Ellis, who owns both dairy and beef properties in the Omarama area, including Tara Hills Station, said Ospri needed to be "dragged through the coals" for not putting the Lindis Pass into a movement control area to contain the disease. In MCAs — areas where infected possums are known to exist or where it is important to monitor the possible spread of Tb in those populations — herds are tested every year and pre-movement testing is required before any animal can be moved off a property. Possums are the main source of bovine Tb in New Zealand. In April, Mr Ellis bought calves at the Omarama calf sale and was later phoned by one of the vendors, from the Lindis Pass area, to say they had reactors to Tb. Mr Ellis, who immediately contacted Ospri, said he did not initially realise how big the Tb issue was in the Lindis and it should have been an MCA. No stock from properties next to farms with Tb-infected herds should be allowed to be put into sales untested, he said. After the first test, Mr Ellis said two calves "festered up" and had significant lesions on them. From blood testing, 10 animals were elevated for further investigation. Those calves were killed and samples sent for testing which showed four of the 10 had Tb. Mr Ellis and his wife Karen have been farming in the area for 20-odd years, and have owned Tara Hills for about 15. When they first took over, they had two years under movement control. Once that was cleared, "life was a lot easier", he said. The current situation meant Omarama farmers might have to go back under movement control and that created a lot of extra work when large numbers of animals were involved. However, it also provided "peace of mind". While not proud to have had animals identified with Tb, Mr Ellis said he had been very open about their situation and made sure neighbouring farmers knew about it. He believed Ospri now needed to "chuck everything at it" to get on top of Tb in the area. He also questioned why farmers should have to pay, through their levies, for pest eradication on Department of Conservation-managed land. When contacted, Doc confirmed it did not contribute funds to the TBfree programme. The programme is funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries and farming industries. The government contributes 40% of the funding for the programme while the remaining 60% comes from the dairy, beef and deer farming industries which raise funding through the dairy milk solid levy, levies on all cattle slaughtered, levies on Deer Industry New Zealand meat and velvet and levies on live export of cattle and deer. Mr Ellis said their remaining affected stock had been isolated in one mob, so were not impacting any other stock on their property, and any animal that tested positive with upcoming tests was likely to be killed. That could be up to 150 animals, which were breeding stock, and he would be pushing for compensation if that happened, he said. At the recent Hillbilly Hunt in Omarama, a fundraiser for the local rodeo club, Mr Ellis and two other local farmers provided a $600 cash prize for the highest tally of possums. The winning team shot 53 while the total number from all teams was 300. Twelve of those possums were kept for a post-mortem. Scott Hunter, manager of neighbouring Berwen Station, was disappointed with Ospri, saying there had been "no communication with farmers". "It's all been hush-hush and kept under wraps. They haven't approached it properly," he said. Ospri had failed to look at the "big picture" and how many people were affected, not only in the Omarama area but also further afield. It was understood some calves from the sale were destined for the North Island. There should have been a "big circle" around affected properties in the Lindis area and farmers now needed to know what Ospri was going to do with that area. "They've dropped that ball. It's a real cluster ... what's happened. 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Otago Daily Times
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- Otago Daily Times
Tb risk in Upper Waitaki focus of meeting
A public meeting is being held in Omarama tomorrow afternoon to discuss bovine tuberculosis risk following concerns about Ospri's response to Tb in the nearby Lindis Pass. Business and rural editor Sally Rae reports. Upper Waitaki farmers say Ospri has "dropped the ball" on bovine Tb control in the area and have called a public meeting to seek answers after infected calves were sold at a calf sale in Omarama earlier this year. Ospri — a partnership between primary industries and government — manages the TBfree national programme which aims to achieve Tb freedom in livestock by next year. The meeting, at the Omarama Hall tomorrow at 3pm, will discuss Tb risk in the area and vector control, and will be attended by Ospri representatives. Anyone is welcome to attend. 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Mr Ellis said their remaining affected stock had been isolated in one mob, so were not impacting any other stock on their property, and anything that tested positive with upcoming tests was likely to be killed. That could be up to 150 animals, which were breeding stock, and he would be pushing for compensation if that happened, he said. At the recent Hillbilly Hunt in Omarama, a fundraiser for the local rodeo club, Mr Ellis and two other local farmers provided a $600 cash prize for the highest tally of possums. The winning team shot 53 while the total number from all teams was 300. Twelve of those possums were kept for a post-mortem. Scott Hunter, manager of neighbouring Berwen Station, was disappointed with Ospri, saying there had been "no communication with farmers". "It's all been hush-hush and kept under wraps. They haven't approached it properly," he said. 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Scoop
30-06-2025
- Scoop
OSPRI Expects Smooth Transition To In-House TB Testing
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at OSPRI officially starts today, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency. Another 10 seasonal field technicians start later in the year. OSPRI took over the TBfree national eradication programme in 2013, and testing was done by AsureQuality. OSPRI general manager disease control, planning and implementation, Simon Andrew, says it now makes sense for the testing to be done by OSPRI, and the transition should be smooth for farmers and the livestock industry. "Testing in-house is a very important step for OSPRI, as an integrated disease control eradication agency," he says. "We're looking forward to carrying out end-to-end control of TB. "We've recruited a strong team of technicians. The expertise they bring will expand our capability and add value to our other programmes. "Testing in-house will bring us closer to farmers, which means we can be more responsive to what farmers need from testing, and from OSPRI." In any one year, a large proportion of the national livestock population is skin tested for TB. The programme undertook about 1.7 million TB tests in the 2023-24 year. "We know farmers and our funders, MPI and livestock industry bodies Beef+Lamb NZ, DairyNZ and the Deer Industry Association, want to see us make more efficient use of the levies paid for the TBfree programme," Simon says. "We are anticipating the cost savings we gain from doing testing in-house will allow us to increase the investment made into possum control, which is the key to achieving TB eradication." Farmers don't need to change what they do. Routine testing will be scheduled when required and to go through normal channels to book a pre-movement test. Along with TBfree, OSPRI also manages NAIT, the national system for tracing cattle and deer, and MBfree, the national eradication programme for Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis).
