Animal traceability in New Zealand
The NAIT scheme is an industry-led initiative, begun in 2004. Industry recognised the need to meet international biosecurity regimes and approached the Government to work together to improve animal tracing in New Zealand.
The scheme also supports a call by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) for the progressive implementation of animal identification and traceability systems worldwide.
Keeping up with international trends
New Zealand was lagging behind its international counterparts in terms of lifetime traceability of individual animals.
Canada introduced a mandatory identification system for cattle in 2002, and Australia in 2005.
A NAIT working group was set up to look at domestic and international trends in animal identification and tracing to propose a way forward for New Zealand.
Waiheke Island foot and mouth disease hoax
The foot and mouth disease hoax on Waiheke Island in 2005 was a wake-up call for the industry. It was clear New Zealand needed an enhanced traceability scheme.
The event, although a hoax, confirmed what the industry already suspected — New Zealand’s current traceability system was not sufficient for the 21st century.
If the hoax had been real, New Zealand would have found it next to impossible to track individual, disease-carrying livestock. Systems were disconnected, largely manual and too slow. New Zealand’s agricultural exports could have been blacklisted by international markets. Billions of dollars could have been lost to New Zealand’s economy and its agricultural industry.
Lessons learned
New Zealand needs NAIT. The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) needed two weeks to be satisfied it had identified all at-risk animals.
Under the NAIT scheme, it would only take 48 hours to do the same analysis.
New Zealand Government support
Recognising these issues would impact the whole of New Zealand and not just the agricultural sector, the agricultural industry approached the Government with a business case in November 2009.
In December 2009, Government agreed to fund the development of a mandatory, national animal identification and tracing scheme for cattle and deer.
Costs and benefits of the NAIT scheme
A conservative cost-benefit analysis in 2009 showed a net benefit to the New Zealand economy of $141 million over 20 years for implementing the NAIT scheme. This is based on an initial rollout for cattle (2011) and deer (2012). The industry agreed that, without NAIT, there are risks of losing market share and/or value during an outbreak of a disease, and the benefits to farmers and the economy of implementing NAIT will far outweigh the costs.
Benefits to the Crown from the NAIT scheme include reduced biosecurity costs arising from more reliable and up-to-date information on the location and movement history of individual cattle and deer.
