Federated Farmers: NAIT an essential biosecurity tool

Dan Schofield of NAIT

Three years ago, the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) was introduced. David Burt revisits the reasons for this and its importance to the pastoral sector and wider economy.

NAIT links people, property and specified livestock.

Under the scheme, cattle and deer are traced using NAIT-approved radio frequency identification device ear tags.

Once tagged, animals are registered in a national database and details recorded include the animal's location, the movements in the animal's life, and the contact details for the person in charge of that animal.

NAIT, together with the TBfree New Zealand programme, is delivered by OSPRI New Zealand (Operational Solutions for New Zealand's Primary Industries).

OSPRI's shareholders represent the beef, dairy and deer sectors.

The OSPRI Board of Directors is supported by a Stakeholders Council that includes Federated Farmers Board members; Katie Milne and council chair Anders Crofoot.

With exemption ending for all capital stock from July 1, (and deer March 1, 2016) all NAIT animals over six months of age are to be tagged (except for those deemed impractical, ie. too dangerous to tag), whether or not they are leaving the property.

The value of the NAIT scheme that was envisaged -- including lifetime traceability that this requirement will enable -- is closer to being achieved.

Being able to identify where NAIT animals are located and trace their movements has a number of important benefits.

Firstly, from a biosecurity perspective, it significantly enhances New Zealand's ability to respond quickly to a biosecurity threat.

For example, if there's a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, it's essential to know what animals are exposed and have the ability to trace back susceptible animal movements for successful containment and eradication of this disease.

Secondly, the increasing sophistication of our overseas markets has seen both our customers and overseas regulators become focused on an increasing number of product attributes.

In the case of beef products in particular, this has included -- because of overseas experience with zoonoses (infections of animals that can cause human diseases) such as BSE -- a requirement for food safety systems such as lifetime traceability that extend back beyond the processing and shipping of products to behind the farm gate.

Not all the benefits are realised off-shore, though.

NAIT has the potential to significantly improve the management of animal diseases such as bovine tuberculosis.

It provides affected farmers, and OSPRI, with the ability to trace movements back to the originating source of the infection and to implement testing regimes.

Such measures can reduce the incidence of the disease and costs to farmers, and through emerging developments in technology, the tagging of animals offers farmers the opportunity to record and leverage on-farm productivity gains.

NAIT, and its parent body OSPRI, do, however, still have some work to do before all these benefits can be fully realised.

While there is high levels of compliance with NAIT requirements at processing plants and saleyards, not all farmers are convinced of the value of the scheme.

As a result, the recording of farm-to-farm movements -- a key plank in the 'two-legged' scheme in place -- is not as high. Considerable emphasis will be placed on improving compliance in this area in future including the use of enforcement tools to ensure that obligations are met.

Federated Farmers believes NAIT is here to stay. An increased focus, over the next three years, by both OSPRI and farmers in addressing issues currently limiting the scheme performance, will see the value of the scheme, to farmers and New Zealand, closer to being realised.

* For details on free NAIT workshops, see page 31, or visit www.nait.co.nz/events