Officials keep eye on ostrich parasite

Department of Conservation staff say they are leaving it up to agriculture officials to decide how to handle an ostrich parasite which poses a potential threat to kiwi.

Any attempt to eradicate it would require stringent controls for a long time, DoC's acting chief technical officer, Allan Ross, said. "We're confident ... the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Maf) has a systematic approach to investigating the issue and consulting us regularly.

"If we get to a point where we feel kiwi are at risk, we will certainly be pushing Maf to take a precautionary approach."

But DoC did not think that eradication was required. "We're not confident at this point that it is a feasible thing to ask for or that it is necessary," Mr Ross said.

Maf staff have found wireworm, an internal parasite which can kill young ostriches, on farms at Reporoa and Hastings, and South Island farmers have reported the parasite as well.

The nematode causes a disease known as "vrotmaag" or rotten stomach in South Africa's farmed ostriches, killing up to 50 per cent of juvenile birds.

Mr Ross said parasite eggs in ostrich faeces were unlikely to be taken up by kiwi, even though the eggs could survive for 30 months in pasture.

"There are very few places where ostrich farms overlap with kiwi habitat," he said. There were some overlaps in Northland and Westland.

Mr Ross discounted the potential for parasite eggs to be carried to kiwi habitat on boots or vehicles that had been to ostrich farms, because it was unlikely kiwis would eat the parasite's larvae on grass.

"Kiwi probe underground with their bill - they don't eat grass," he said. "We think it unlikely that kiwi would be susceptible."

DoC had, as a last resort, the power to declare the parasite an "unwanted organism", but was a long way from such a move.

Maf's programme co-ordinator for exotic disease response, Dorothy Gaele, said it was working with DoC to identify and investigate potential areas of overlap between kiwis and ostriches.

It was a precautionary approach. The parasite had been in Australia for about 100 years and had not affected emus or cassowaries, which were closer relations to the ostrich.

The New Zealand Ostrich Association will meet Maf staff at Christchurch today to discuss the wireworm outbreak.

Ostriches have not been imported into New Zealand since 1996, suggesting the wireworm parasite has been in the country for at least eight years and is probably widespread.


- NZPA