Farmers could get compensation for disease scare

Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton this morning said compensation would be considered for the Waiheke Island farmers affected by the foot and mouth threat.

Animals are being checked by vets every 48 hours and livestock cannot move onto or off the island.

The scare follows a letter delivered to Prime Minister Helen Clark's office which said a release of the disease had been made on Monday.

Authorities remain convinced it is a hoax, but asked asked how much the threat had cost to manage so far, Mr Sutton said: "It's clearly millions of dollars a day."

He told National Radio: "Just the cost and the inconvenience to the farmers of Waiheke Island who are having to have their animals' temperatures taken every 48 hours for two weeks.

"It's a total disruption to their farming activities."

Mr Sutton rubbished National Party suggestions the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) should have kept the threat quiet seeing it believed it was a hoax. "You simply have to be open and honest," he said.

National deputy leader Gerry Brownlee yesterday suggested there had been hoaxes in the past which had been quiet, a belief scotched by Mr Sutton.

MAF spokesman Brett Sangster said Mr Sangster said no special measures could be taken ahead of the claimed deadline tomorrow of a claimed second release of the disease.

"All we can do is wait and see at this stage. There are no measures that we believe would be prudent to be put in place prior," he said.

"But if it is a hoax it's always possible the perpetrator may come forward and confess before then, which would take a huge amount of weight off people's shoulders."

Vets were today focusing on the island's largest 12 properties and only a few were "truly commercial" Mr Sangster said. "There was one property yesterday where the farmer came forward and he had 50 sheep individually named and a pig called Babe."

Nine of the island's more than 40 properties with stock are still to be contacted by MAF, with contact details proving incorrect for people living off the island.

Mr Sangster said MAF with the help of police would be trying today to find the nine remaining people.

Neither testing nor stock movement restrictions would be extended to the mainland near Waiheke as MAF would usually only respond to foot and mouth on the basis of a confirmed case. "At this stage there is no reason to start surveillance off Waiheke Island," he said.

- NZPA