KEEN TO KEEP DISEASE OUT

Press, 22 December 1978, Page 6

KEEN TO KEEP DISEASE OUT

Deer farmers are prepared to co-operate with the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that tuberculosis is kept out of their herds, the president of the New Zealand Deer Farmers’ Association, Mr P. H. Elworthy, said this week.

Tuberculosis _ is known to exist on a limited scale among deer in the wild. Already some farmed deer have been tested for the presence of the disease with the same test as is used with cattle, but at the moment the extension of testing for tuberculosis to deer is complicated by the fact that the authorities are uncertain whether the test is effective in determining whether these animals do or do not have the disease. There is little on the subject in the scientific literature and until a number of animals, which have been tested, are slaughtered there is no certainty about the efficacy of testing. In the meantime, however, farmers have been recommended to keep animals coming on to their properties separate and have them tested before they join other animals, and it has also been suggested that where animals are sick, and particularly where they have abscesses, farmers should call in their veterinarian to insnect them and they should be isolated from other stock until they have been proved to be clear of the disease.

Deer farmers were aware that there had been

an isolated case of tuberculosis in deer that had been processed in game packing houses after being brought in from the wild* Mr Elworthy said this week.

Because the incidence of the disease in these animals was very low they were not unduly worried about it, but they were nevertheless determined to ensure that it did not get into their herds.

Consequently the association was talking to the Ministry of Agriculture about ways of ensuring that deer on farms were kept clear of the infection. “We are prepared to cooperate with the Ministry in the establishment of a test for tuberculosis for deer,” he said, but added that at the present time the test used with cattle had not been proven to be an effective test for deer.

Deer farmers, he said, were also prepared to cooperate in any way required by the Ministry to ensure that wild animals, from areas where tuberculosis might be suspected to exist in deer, were not brought on to farms. Bearing out Mr Elworthy’s contention that the incidence of tuberculosis in wild deer was very low, Mr P. J. Morrissey, manager of Edmonds Game Consolidated. Ltd, said that a meat inspector in their game packing house in Christchurch had reported seeing only four or five cases of tuberculosis in deer cbming in from the wild in four years when some 70.000 to 80,000 deer would have gone through the house.

An assistant director of the Animal ’ Health Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, who is responsible for field services, Mr R. M. Salisbury, said this week that tests had been done on about 350 deer and a certain number had reacted to the test, but until animals had been slaughtered the effectiveness of the test would not be known. They had no reason to believe that the test was not effective, but until such time as the animals had been killed they could not be sure.

At present, he said there was no provision under the Animals Act to pay compensation on deer slaughtered because they might suffer from the disease, but he confirmed that they were conferring with the Deer Farmers’ Association on this subject and that it was likely that in the next Parliamentary session steps would be taken to cover the possibility of paying compensation on animals other than cattle. However, he said he did not think that the Government would be prepared to pay compensation in line with the sort of values at present being paid for deer.

He also indicated that they were looking at the possibility of allocating responsibility for testing of deer to private veterinarians.

In the meantime, although the efficiency of the test is still not certain, Mr Salisbury recdm-

mended that, particularly where animals were brought on to farms from the wild and from problem areas for tuberculosis and even where animals were moved from one farm to another, it would be prudent for farmers to keep these animals separate from others on the farm and have their veterinarians test them. The recommendation of Mr J. B. Hutton, a veterinary investigating officer at the Ministry of Agriculture’s animal health laboratory at Lincoln, is that animals that are sick, and especially if they have abscesses, should be treated as suspect and should be isolated from other animals. Farmers with such animals should, of course, call in their veterinarians. The deer farming industry is still growing apace. An indication of this was given this week when Mr Elsworthy said that his association now had some 600 members. As recently as last May at the annual conference of the association in Rotorua he said that there were some 200 to 250 deer farms in the country. At that time looking to the problems that the industry might have in the future, Mr Elworthy said that deer were tough but must be prone to health problems under conditions of intensive farming haying come so recently from extensive rangelands. But such problems could be overcome by intelligent management and quick and effective use of the excellent veterinary services that were available.