RISK WAS TOO GREAT

Press, 18 August 1978, Page 10

RISK WAS TOO GREAT

It is to be hoped that the final chapter has now been written in the unhappy story of the sheep that were imported from Britain in 1972.

The purpose of the exercise was ' commendable. The hope was that they might be utilised in a programme to eventually boost the prolificacy of the national flock. The dangers from disease — in particular scrapie — were recognised, and it was for this reason that rigid quarantine was imposed on the sheep, particularly in the early stages.

There were, however, some people who felt that even with these safeguards being taken the risks to country, so dependent on its sheep industry, were too great.

It was unfortunate that some of the stock were moved from Mana Island to the mainland near Rotorua in 1976. Soon afterwards the first case of what was believed to be scrapie was diagnosed on Mana. The length of the incubation period that can be associated with this mysterious disease had clearly not been fully realised. The authorities have naturally been reluctant to give up an investigation in which a considerable investment of effort and money had been made and which offered considerable promise. Sympathy can be felt with the scientists who have been working on this project and who have devoted so much time to it.

When a second case of the disease cropped up recently a decision was

made to bring to this country a world authority, in the person of Dr T. .1. Stamp, before a final decision was made to destroy all the animals.

Dr Stamp has now had the final word. “There is no satisfactory alternative to slaughter.” The fears of those who ha fought unceasingly against the presence of exotic sheep in the New Zealand area and have lost no opportunity to emphasise the risks being taken seem now to have been fully justified. Dr Stamp even seems to have confirmed that there is a risk, small perhaps, of the disease spreading, or already having spread, from Crater farm and the possibility that it might be several vears before it shows up. Men like Professor A. N. Bruere, of Massey University, and Mr Cliff Martin, of the Romney Society, have been leaders amo g those people. In the last few days there has come to light a splendid example of the benefits to be gained from freedom from diseases. The Australian firm erf Elder Smith Goldsbrough Mort, Ltd, were engaged in selling livestock to the People’s Republic of China. Late last year when a strain of a bluetongue type virus was found in Australia, the Chinese imposed a ban on all imports of sheep from Australia. The firm turned to the possibility of selling New Zealand sheep to the Chinese instead and asked a leading Canterbury sheep breeder, Mr P. N. Martin, a former president of the Corriedale Sheep Society and more recently a Suffolk breeder,

to fly to China to help negotiate a contract. As a result some 800 Romney and Lincoln sheep will be flown from New Zealand to China in November. This week the executive of the Sheep and Beef Cattle Society of the New Zealand Veterinary Association sent a telegram to Dr G. H. Adlam, director of the Animal Health Divi= sion of the Ministry of Agriculture, supporting the action in. destroying all the imported exotic sheep and their progeny. The society, with a membership of veterinarians closely associated with the sheep industry, has been solidly behind the destruction of all these sheep ever since the second case of scrapie cropped up earlier in the year.