Pigs face 'mass slaughter' in New Zealand

Pig farmers in northern New Zealand are considering a mass slaughter of their animals to stamp out an untreatable disease which kills young pigs, agriculture officials said.

Some 25 pig farms on New Zealand’s North Island are infected with post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), a disease first detected in the Waikato farm region of northern North Island last September.

Pork industry leaders said they are drawing up plans for a mass slaughter on affected farms in a bid to wipe out the disease.

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries national manager of surveillance and response in animal biosecurity, Allen Bryce, said he had told pig farmers that the disease’s “eradication is probably not going to work”.

Hundreds more farms are being checked for the disease, and South Island “appears free of PMWS,” Bryce added.

The disease, which usually kills affected pigs aged six to 12 weeks, can kill up to 40% of a piggery’s weaners.

Widespread outside New Zealand and Australia, it causes the animals to waste away and is connected with other pig viruses such as porcine parvovirus.

The disease poses no risk to humans and grown pigs can continue to be sent for slaughter and processing.