BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21935, 19 October 1934, Page 14

BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS

ERADICATION CAMPAIGN COST OF £1,000,000 [BY TELEGRAPH SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON. Thursday The eradication of bovine tuberculosis is recommended by the Dairy Commission. ' After emphasising the need for undertaking such a campaign, the report states that there are approximately 2,000,000 adult dairy cattle in New Zealand, and taking 9 per cent as the maximum degree of incidenco of the disease, about 180,000 head of dairy stock are affected and would need to be slaughtered. Tho initial eradication should be spread over a period of three years. A staff ranging from 60 in the first 3*ear to 160 in the third would be needed for testing, and .the total cost under that h6ad would bo £320,000 for the three years. Retesting after the third year would mean an annual recurring cost of £150,000. The othefr cost in such a campaign was that incurred by way of compensation to owners of destroyed stock. In Canada, compensation was paid up to two-thirds of the value of the animal, and a similar method should bo adopted in New Zealand. The cost of compensation would approximate £700,000. The total cost of the campaign for three years would, therefore, bo about £350,000 a year. The commission considers that the Government should provide the sum of approximately £1,000,000 required for the initial period of tuberculosis eradication. Thereafter the costs of maintaining herds in a disease-free condition should be borne by the industry, except in so far as the State found it expedient to provide compensation for destroyed stock. At the conclusion of the three years, the veterinary organisation established should bo directed to the task of animal disease control generally.