A veterinarian from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's national centre for disease investigation is being sent to Britain to get practical experience in dealing with a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.
He will be accompanied by a tracing expert and epidemiologist from the state-owned enterprise Agriquality, as well as two Massey University experts in New Zealand software that tracks epidemics.
The two university staff will be paid for by the British Government, which has spent several million dollars on work on mad cow disease at Massey.
The New Zealand Government staff will be paid for by MAF.
Besides helping hard-pressed British authorities, they are expected to get experience not available in exercises and workshops in New Zealand.
"This is an opportunity for them to work with a real outbreak, and gain experience, in addition to aiding the British effort," a MAF spokeswoman said yesterday.
The virus, which can wipe out entire farming economies, was discovered last week in England.
The New Zealanders were yesterday on their way to Britain, where the Massey team will finalise the setting-up of a computer system to guide authorities in their efforts to track and eradicate the disease.
Professor Roger Morris, who led the development of the computer modelling system on the spread and control of animal diseases, said Britain had recently bought the system to tackle outbreaks such as the present one.
The Massey staff would complete installation of the system.
It still needed final inputs and fine tuning.
- NZPA
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