Molesworth Station: New Zealand’s largest farm clear of bovine tuberculosis

Beef cattle on Molesworth Station. Photo / RNZ / Sally Round

By Gianina Schwanecke of RNZ

New Zealand’s largest working farm, Molesworth Station, has declared its cattle free of bovine tuberculosis (TB) for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Operated by state-farmer Pāmu - formerly Landcorp - Molesworth Station spans over 180,000 hectares in the northern South Island high country.

The station has a long history of bovine TB infection in its livestock, with the bacterial disease first detected in the 1960s and the farm considered continuously infected since 1972.

Pāmu chief executive Mark Leslie said being declared TB-free came after many years of hard work and was a “fantastic” result.

“It’s a great recognition,” he said.

“Lots of hard work to get to where they’ve got to.”

Leslie said a TB-free status was not only important for animal health but also export market requirements.

He said the station had been home to several significant research projects on the reduction and elimination of bovine TB, and control has involved innovating and trying different approaches.

This included changing its herd management and farm operating system to a comprehensive livestock testing programme, reducing the numbers of infected animals through on-farm skin and blood testing.

With possums considered one of the main spreaders of bovine TB, there had also been large-scale possum control on-farm.

Leslie paid credit to Molesworth farm manager Jim Ward, who had been on-farm for over half the period of infection.

“Jim has been a key driver of this status outcome, but of course, it’s been a collaborative effort.

“The credit for this tremendous success goes to all the people and organisations who have worked for a very long time to make this TB result a reality.”

Leslie also recognised OSPRI, which works with the farming industry to manage animal disease in New Zealand and manages the TBfree programme.

OSPRI chief executive Sam McIvor said Molesworth’s journey to TB freedom was a staged process, and this was a significant step along the path to TB freedom.

“While we have completed possum control in the area, we still have some ongoing surveillance work of both wildlife and livestock to confirm that TB is finally gone.”

As of April 1, there were 12 infected herds across the country.

- RNZ