Consents are pending for huge poison drops to control possums as the Animal Health Board (AHB) steps up its fight against bovine tuberculosis (TB).
The West Coast AHB committee has this week sent a newsletter outlining its plans to thousands of rural residents and farmers.
The region has the highest TB rate
in New Zealand -- around 22 per cent of all infected herds.
Progress against the disease has stalled in the last 18 months but the Coast regional AHB committee has secured an extra $6 million to increase possum control.
The board met yesterday and found the number of infected herds had again risen, climbing to 87.
That's up another five or six herds in two months.
Chairman Murray Stewart said it was partly because it was testing time, and pest control work had been less effective than it should have been. But although more herds had broken down, there were fewer reactors.
"That's the one piece of good news: less reactors are showing at the (meat) works. They're spread over a larger number of herds."
The board is hoping to receive a consent for pest control work covering 31,600 hectares in the Karamea area, a stronghold of bovine TB.
Consents are also pending for Kokatahi/Kowitirangi and the upper Grey Valley.
In total, the expanded programme will increase the control area on the Coast by more than 400,000ha.
Mr Stewart said the board is also considering following up its leaflet with one focusing on the control side, and what farmers can do.
- NZPA
