Stock Quarantine Station Planned

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31598, 8 February 1968, Page 1

Stock Quarantine Station Planned

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 7. A maximum security quarantine station, which will permit the importation of animals from countries now on the prohibited list, will be built for the Department of Agriculture on Somes Island in Wellington Harbour.

The station would make possible the importation of genetic materials of highproducing strains from other countries, said a departmental officiat The only two places from which New Zealand has imported cattle are Tasmania and the United Kingdom, but animals from the latter have been prohibited because of foot-and-mouth disease. There are, however, good breeds of cattle and sheep in countries from which imports are, at present, not allowed. All animals imported from such countries for breeding will remain at the station for the rest of their lives. Breeding will be done in the station, which will consist of a main building adjoining a large exercise area surrounded by pens. All solid waste matter will be burned, and all liquid will be sterilised before it is taken from the compound. Stock will be imported only by the Government, and not by individual farmers, to ensure that the imported animals are healthy, and do not introduce disease.

The Somes Island station will be the third of its kind in the world. The other two are in Canada and Ireland.