Waiheke farmers gear up for another round of stock testing

Retesting of stock on Waiheke Island is set to resume this weekend as belief grows that the foot-and-mouth threat is a hoax.

Ministry and Agriculture and Forestry officials will continue testing every 48 hours for the next 10 days until the end of the incubation period.

"Things have quietened down," MAF spokesman Joe Wallace said today.

"The testing and that sort of thing will carry on for a while. Otherwise, it's just wait and see."

Mr Wallace said there had been no indication among Waiheke stock of any early symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease, which might have shown up by now.

The claim that the virus had been released on the island was contained in the letter received by the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.

The letter also warned that there would be a further release on the mainland yesterday if the Government did not give in to demands for money and a change in tax policy.

Mr Wallace said there was no indication that the second threat had been carried out.

Meanwhile, on Waiheke Station, farm manager Neville Dick was gearing up to have his stock retested.

A random sample of about 60 sheep and cattle on the 800ha property has already had temperatures taken by a veterinarian, who also checked for lesions or foaming at the mouth.

Mr Dick's wife, Celia, said the stock that weren't specifically tested earlier had all been seen, and none had shown any symptoms of the disease.

She said the feeling within the Waiheke farming community was that the letter was a hoax.

"Yes, because so far nothing positive has come back."

She didn't believe the scare would put people off meat from Waiheke.

"It could go the other way," she said.

"People will think they are good because the vets have seen them all the animals."

Mrs Dick said the alert had been a big disruption, with her husband not being to get on with work that he would normally be doing.

But while there was some anger among farmers at first, they were now just getting on with the job at hand.

"It was something quite out of the blue, but now they've realised what the situation is, they've settled down and got on with it," she said.

"We still have to keep the job up, because there's another week to go."

- NZPA