Keeping a few pigs in the backyard is a treasured Kiwi tradition, but they could be the weak link in the event of a biosecurity incursion, the pork industry says.
A spokeswoman for New Zealand lifestyle farmers agrees and says authorities are not doing enough to educate new or inexperienced pig farmers about the precautions which must be taken to prevent an outbreak of disease or infection.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), which is charged with managing New Zealand biosecurity, was unable to answer questions put to it by Courier Country last week.
NZPork chairman Ian Carter said its 130 recorded commercial producers took every possible precaution against the spread of disease and infection because of the threat to livelihoods.
However, the industry estimated there were about 7000 farms ''with pigs on them'', which posed a ''significant risk biosecurity-wise''.
There was little knowledge among those operators of waste food regulations and little control over what pigs were being fed, he said.
''In their own mind, they are doing the country a service by stopping it [waste] going to landfill.''
Those producers could run anything up to 100-sow operations - the largest operations could be producing more than 1000 pigs a year, he said.
Although there was a ''huge underground market'' for pork throughout the country, this was not about protecting the interest of commercial farmers.
''It is not about trying to get rid of backyarders. That culture isn't going to change in New Zealand, ever.''
The regulators should acknowledge they are there and the level of risk they pose to the commercial industry.
And rather than hoping an incursion would be contained once it entered the country, there should be more robust biosecurity at the border to prevent it in the first place, Mr Carter said.
Northland lifestyle block farmer and co-creator of the lifestyleblock.co.nz website Kate Brennan said she could not believe more was not being done to educate those new to pig farming about precautions they must take.
''It is a huge biosecurity threat to New Zealand. Foot and mouth disease could destroy the economy.''
Ms Brennan said in her experience, once people were aware of the risks, most of them followed the recommended guidelines.
''But there are also the people who say 'I've always done it this way'.''
People had to understand bad practice threatened not only their own operations but their neighbours' livelihoods also.
''It is a terribly serious issue,'' Ms Brennan said.
''I can't believe it's not being rammed home more by MPI and Biosecurity.''
People could buy land, move into the country and buy animals and there was nothing in place to tell them what the regulations were, she said.
She said she had just published a free e-book which addressed such issues.
''We do everything we can to let people know.''
Despite her website's documented popularity, she had never been asked by authorities to help disseminate information, she said.
There are well over 150,000 lifestyle blocks in New Zealand, but it seemed ''if they were not commercial, they were not relevant''.
''Yes, we are a biosecurity risk but there is no information for people coming into farming really raw with no experience.
''I feel like I am a one-woman crusade for lifestylers to get more information from officials.''
Mr Carter said MPI was ''hanging its hat'' on education being the best way to prevent outbreaks.
Pigs were susceptible to infections, and those kept outdoors, as a large percentage of the Canterbury pig herd was, were particularly susceptible to airborne diseases or those carried by birds or other animals.
It was difficult to quantify the high cost of disease management to the industry,Many could not imagine the lengths pig farmers had to go to protect against diseases.
Mr Carter had recently undertaken a ''total depop'' of his pig farm and ''started again'' to preserve a ''high health'' status.
His replacement stock was trucked from Auckland to his property in North Otago.
The route was planned with precision, as was the timing.
The truck must not go past a piggery, it must not travel on the ferry with other stock trucks, and it could not stop and refuel if there was another stock truck present.
Mr Carter did not believe regulations would work because they would require enforcement. And it was ''too hard'' to control something embedded in New Zealand culture. Mr Carter said the industry did not have confidence in MPI's ability to manage incursions.
''[So] controls at the border must be robust. If foot and mouth disease came in, the borders would just shut, so we couldn't export [any livestock].''
Ms Brennan thought including pigs in the National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme would be a way of registering backyard operators but Mr Carter believed it would not pick up those who did not trade or kill through commercial enterprises.