Last week, pork producers and marketers from throughout the country gathered in Wellington for the New Zealand pork industry conference and annual meeting.
Courier Country spoke to NZPork chairman Ian Carter about the industry's most pressing concerns and developments.
There was possibly no producer group more at risk from a biosecurity incursion than the pork industry, Mr Carter said, adding pig farmers were feeling like guinea pigs when it came to disease prevention.
''Pigs tend to be a `sentinel' group'' and almost certainly would be the first animal population to exhibit signs of an infection or outbreak like foot and mouth disease [FMD].
''We're very conscious of disease. Biosecurity is always at the forefront.''
Pig farmers invested heavily in their operations, did not have access to cheap feed or labour like their overseas competitors and complied with this country's much more stringent regulations, which added to costs, he said.
''We do have to have good herd production and the high health status needed to maintain it. Our disease status is critical to our profitability.''
At the time Courier Country went to print, NZPork was waiting for a Supreme Court decision about the case it has taken against the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). It wants to stop MPI's introduction of a new Import Health Standard which will relax border control and allow pigmeat to come in from countries with Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS).
The High Court's decision in June last year found in favour of MPI, as did the Court of Appeal decision in April this year.
NZ Pork argued the case was not about trade or competition in the marketplace but MPI had not followed ''due process''.
It said it did not have confidence in MPI's ability to provide appropriate biosecurity measures.
MPI was unwilling to talk to Courier Country while the case was before the court.
However, Primary Industries Associate Minister Jo Goodhew told the conference there would always be debate over the ''best scientific evidence''.
Incursions were common and were managed in ''tried and trusted ways'', she said.
While Mr Carter did not want to discuss specifics either, he did say whatever the outcome, there was still a need to decide the best way to scientifically assess potential threats.
After spending $1.6 million on the case, the industry would at least like to see the scientists employed by each party ''meet in the same room''.
Massey University's EpiCentre calculated there was a risk of incursion every 10 years. However, MPI, using predominantly American scientists, calculated an incursion would occur only once every 1227 years.
Both sides had argued ''conflict of interest'', Mr Carter said, and the industry wanted the science bodies to agree and produce concrete evidence about the level of risk.
''We want to find out which one is right. We are not comfortable being the guinea pigs.''
Mr Carter said producers would be best served if a biosecurity risk model for the New Zealand industry was generated first and then analysed to see how it could best fit within the requirements of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS agreement). The WTO has stipulated while a country can set its own animal health or biosecurity standards, it cannot use these as trade barriers.
Its SPS agreement sets out its basic rules for food safety and animal and plant health standards.
It says standards should be scientifically based and applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health.
Mr Carter said the MPI seemed confused about how to manage its often conflicting roles now producer interests, trade and biosecurity had been combined under its stewardship.
The MPI did not have a good track record when it came to containing incursions once they came into the country, as was evidenced by varroa, PSA, and tomato/potato psyllid outbreaks, he said.
PRRS was endemic in the world's pig population and New Zealand was one of only five countries which did not have the disease .
It seriously compromised animal welfare and wellbeing.
Uncooked meat was being imported safely from PRRS-free Australia, Sweden and Finland, Mr Carter said.
Overall, the industry was in good heart.
Efficiencies in production meant despite dropping pig numbers, there was still close to the same tonnage of protein - 50,000 tonnes - produced annually, Mr Carter said. Many in the industry produced more protein than a 15,000-cattle operation. The industry was proud of the significant progress it had made in animal welfare, he said, with only a small percentage of farmers still using sow stalls.
And by the end of 2015, there would be no dry sow stalls being used in New Zealand, he said.
Farrowing crates were different and there was no plan to do away with those. They were set up in clean, heated and serviced ''maternity wards'' and were essential to keep the sow from accidentally smothering the newborn piglets and to care for the mother, Mr Carter said.
At the conference, Royal New Zealand SPCA Blue Tick certification programme manager Juliet Banks said the society was pleased with the progress the industry had made on animal welfare in a short time. The SPCA asked the public to buy only New Zealand-farmed pork, she said.
TERMINOLOGY
• Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) is a fast-mutating, flu-like virus which can be transmitted in various ways, including via airborne transmission and in uncooked pig meat.
It severely suppresses the immune system, making the animal susceptible to other diseases, including pneumonia.
Piglet mortality pre-weaning can peak at 70% and it is not unusual for an additional 10% to 15% to die post-weaning.
There is no effective vaccine or cure.
• The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, also known as the SPS Agreement, is an international treaty of the World Trade Organisation.
It sets out the basic rules for food safety and animal and plant health standards.
It allows countries to set their own standards but regulations must be based on science. They should be applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health. And they should not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between countries where identical or similar conditions prevail.
• An Import Health Standard is put in place by the Biosecurity New Zealand section of the Ministry for Primary Industry.
It sets the standards and regulations by which items which may pose a biosecurity threat can be brought into the country.
The standards include the requirements for the exporting country, during transit and during importation, before biosecurity clearance can be given.
• The Blue Tick is a logo the Royal New Zealand SPCA uses to certify animal products are farmed to its high welfare standards.