New Zealand - MAF says 25 pig farms may have serious disease

Biosecurity officials say 25 piggeries between Whangarei and Taranaki have been confirmed or provisionally confirmed as having a serious pig disease. More than half of the farms with post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) -- which kills young pigs -- are in the wider Waikato, where 20 per cent of the country's pig farms are based. Hundreds more farms around the country are being investigated. The disease was diagnosed at Ted and Irene Graham's piggery at Orini, 24km east of Huntly, in September last year. Their farm was one of three initially offered compensation deals by the Pork Industry Board. But the offer was withdrawn when the scale of the problem was realised. The board is now drawing up a national pest management strategy, although its chief executive Angus Davidson said the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) had advised it to do nothing. "Their initial suggestions were to investigate and do nothing. They were adamant eradication wasn't a possibility, but, as we have said all along, we disagree," he said. MAF said this week in its latest biosecurity newsletter that it did not consider eradicating the disease was technically feasible. "MAF's view is that with the current state of knowledge, and existing test technologies, eradication is not technically feasible". This was because the two main hypotheses were that it might be caused by a porcine circovirus type 2, (PCV2) which was widespread in New Zealand pigs, or it might be caused by an unidentified infectious agent, or a virulent strain of PCV2 recently introduced to New Zealand.