KEY POINTS:
New Zealand last week hosted the OIE Regional Commission for Asia, the Far East and Oceania for the second time since joining the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in 1925.
A total of 130 people from countries all around the region took part in the meeting held in Queenstown, including for the first time, China.
MAF Biosecurity assistant director general and OIE president Barry O'Neil says China had agreed to host the next meeting in 2009.
"Up to now without them being present at these meetings there's a big gap in the region," O'Neil said.
A workshop was held on bird flu and discussions included controlling foot and mouth, emerging diseases in pigs, food safety challenges for developing countries and an update on the disease status of all countries.
Foot and mouth was endemic in South East Asia, with about 400 outbreaks each year, O'Neil said.
The possible drivers of emerging diseases in pigs were examined, including whether there was a genetic problem from a narrowed base, husbandry systems and susceptibility related to more intensive farming.
Improvement had been made in controlling bird flu but there was still significant outbreaks in Indonesia and Vietnam and despite falling out of public view, the issue was still very much a major issue for veterinary services of affected countries.
"The highlight for me was the commitment from the countries accepting we need to work together to be able to control these serious diseases," O'Neil said.
Modern life, travel, tourism and trade increasingly make borders just lines on a map. Controlling animal diseases, especially for an economy dominated by agriculture, needs an international approach. Big gaps don't help, China's joining will.
SHUT YOUR TRAP
New animal welfare regulations will increase the restrictions on using leghold traps from next year.
All long-spring traps size 1.5 and larger, plus all double-coil leghold traps larger than 1.5 are to be banned from January 1, 2009, while hard-jaw traps of size 1.5 will be banned from 2011.
Sale of the traps is banned from January 1 next year.
Breaching the regulations will be an offence under the Animal Welfare Act and punishable by up to six months' jail and/or up to a $25,000 fine for a person or $125,000 for a corporate body.
The regulations supersede all present bylaws covering the use of leghold traps.
Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton says the Government has to be mindful of animal welfare.
"These regulations should ensure that leghold traps are still available for use when essential but that abuse is avoided," Anderton says.
Other leghold traps such as size 1 and 1.5 double-coil padded jaw traps will still be usable, although from January 1 next year no trap of any type will be allowed within 150 metres of an area where it is probable that a pet could be caught.
Some animals will always be regarded as pests but the measures should be as humane as possible.
After all its not the animal's fault we consider it a pest and part of the human condition is the ability to recognise suffering and take action to avoid it.
We can do better than leg-grabbing traps which could cause considerable distress and an objective look at the state of the planet might reveal us to be a bit of a pest ourselves.
SEA LION LIMIT
The maximum number of sea lion deaths allowed in the southern squid trawl fishery from accidental catch has been set at 81 for the 2008 season.
The fishery runs from about February until April/May and if the limit is reached then it will be closed.
This year the limit was for 93 sealions, with 56 estimated to have been caught.
Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton says it was a difficult decision which required balancing the need to protect sea lions and an obligation to allow squid harvesting.
The sealions feed on squid gathering in waters around the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands and are at risk when they follow squid into trawl nets.
PEST CONTROL
Auckland-based Connovation is developing fast-acting and humane products to control pest animals in Australia using investment of more than $200,000 from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.
The grant covered projects including a rapidly absorbed PAPP-based (para-aminopropiophenone) bait capable of killing larger animals such as wild dogs and foxes.
Chief executive Duncan MacMorran says the product is likely to be registered in Australia within a year and could attract international interest.
"We've already had interest from the United Kingdom and expect a lot more once the product is available," MacMorran says.
The project also brought the company to the attention of the Tasmanian Government in the shape of a $300,000 share of a research grant to look for humane alternatives to using 1080 for controlling possums and wallabies.
MacMorran is hopeful the company's core product Feratox - an encapsulated cyanide pellet which animals cannot smell or taste, and which leaves no residue - will be chosen for the job.
Cyanide is top of the list of humane toxins, leaving the animal unconscious within three minutes and dead within 15 minutes, while other poisons can take animals three weeks to bleed to death, MacMorran says.
Demand for humane control methods is growing, he says.
"I personally find it unconscionable that we let animals bleed for 21 days."
KIWIFRUIT COST CUT
Tony Nowell, chief executive of Kiwifruit exporter Zespri, says it is critical the industry improves its cost efficiency.
Nowell says cost cutting is needed because the dollar is likely to stay high for the foreseeable future.
"For any business not to do this exercise at this point in time would be somewhat irresponsible," Nowell says.
Zespri's forecast for the season ending March next year expects payments for green fruit to drop to $6.40 a tray from $7.41 the previous year, with gold dropping from $9.42 to $8.97 a tray.
A working group comprising representatives from Zespri, suppliers and New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated is to propose recommendations on the cost structure of the whole industry at a meeting of the Industry Advisory Council in December.
Nowell is confident there could be relatively significant opportunities to save money.
Costs can be broken down into three areas - growing, post harvest and marketing - but before any action is taken the impact on revenue has to be fully understood, Nowell says.
"It's very dangerous to take precipitous actions to simply slash cost wherever," he says.
Exporters in many sectors understandably will be planning this year on the basis that the New Zealand dollar will remain high - expectations of a drop, although reasonable, went on for so long they started sounding like the boy who cried wolf.
People won't believe it now until it actually comes down - and stays down for a consistent period - but with talk of a possible recession in the US and interest rates staying high here, the kiwi is going to stay an attractive option for international investors.
Exporters who can absorb the impact of the exchange rate on returns will come out of this as lean operators, well placed to capitalise on any future shift in conditions.
However, Nowell rightly identifies the risk of cost cutting for short-term gain at the expense of growth.
Exporters can only trim so much fat before they start cutting off muscle - and if they have to do that the economy will suffer, maybe not tomorrow but in the years ahead.
