ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015

OSPRI | CORE PROGRAMMES 2014/2015
INTEGRATING WITH TBFREE
A major focus for the year was
the integration of activities across
NAIT and TBfree. A key outcome
included more efficient and timely
identification of the source of some
herd infections.
Animal movements play a
significant role in the spread of
disease. NAIT requires farmers to
record animal movements, which
inform our assessments of disease
risk and improves decision making
on how best to mitigate disease risk
and prevent future occurance.
NAIT and TBfree data is reconciled
to identify and track animals
connected with infected herds.
NAIT assists with validating animal
movements (into and out of
infected herds) and the TB testing
process related to herd breakdowns.
A proportion of TB breakdowns
each year are likely to be related
to movements of infected livestock
where animals may be in the early
stages of infection and/or not
sufficiently responsive to diagnostic
tests. This is one of the challenges
of managing TB. An integral part
of our investigations into a new TB
breakdown is the ability to traceback
and trace-forward animal
movements. The use of NAIT
movement data has now become a
key tool in managing TB.
IMPROVING USABILITY
Usability improvements included
enhancing NAIT search functions
and increasing the load speed of
the system website.
OSPRI also launched a national
series of training workshops
to support farmer knowledge
and skills in using the system. A
number of these workshops were
held in partnership with the Dairy
Women’s Network and LIC. These
training workshops provided
practical training and were well
attended, with more than 1000
attendees and a satisfaction rating
from participants of 90%.
OSPRI’s contact centre managed
200,000 calls in the year, half
of which were NAIT-related. Our
highly trained staff are available to
assist with queries on any aspect
of NAIT and to support farmers
to use NAIT and meet their NAIT
requirements.
SPREADING THE WORD
We focused on reinforcing the key
requirements to tag and register
animals and record farm-to-farm
movements. We also focused on
emphasising the various benefits
of NAIT to farmers, industries
and New Zealand. This included
the use of case studies profiling
farmers talking about the benefits
they personally see in NAIT. Like
our work on usability, this focus
reflected feedback and advice from
the Stakeholders’ Council, and
the Council assisted in reviewing
campaign materials.
OSPRI continued to build its
communications programme in
close contact with shareholder
agencies to improve alignment.
We appreciate the time and
resource that partner agencies
commit to drive the uptake of the
NAIT programme.
IMPROVING DATA INTEGRITY
We took measures to ensure high
quality data entered NAIT and
regularly reviewed the quality and
usability of data extracted from it.
Our achievements included a 36%
reduction in the number of pending
movements (560,000 pending
animal movements resolved), a
100% reduction in the number of
duplicate movements (1,260,000
duplicate animal movements
resolved), a 28% reduction in
rejected movements (25,000
rejected animal movements
resolved), a 74% reduction of
movements to and a 43% reduction
in movements from unknown
locations (390,000 animal
movements resolved). In addition
there was an extensive clean-up of
PICA contact information.
FARM-TO-FARM MOVEMENTS
A key challenge remains identifying
the number of farm-to-farm
movements not being recorded
and where these may be occuring
across New Zealand. We engaged
transport companies to collect data
so we could assess the proportion
of farm-to-farm movements not
recorded in various regions. The
results demonstrate this remains a
significant area for improvement.
We have focused communications
on this issue, including direct mail
campaigns around key movement
events such as farm-to-farm beef
weaner sales, on-farm dairy calf
sales, and dairy grazing. We are
also collaborating with industry
organisations and information
providers to explore ways to get on
top of this issue.
WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP
OSPRI worked with a wide
range of parties to enhance the
uptake of NAIT and add value
to the programme, including the
Ministry for Primary Industries
(MPI), exporters, processors and
manufacturers. One major initiative
was to work with MPI (as the primary
agency responsible for the initiation
and response during a biosecurity
emergency) to further develop
NAIT’s reporting. Our objective was
to ensure the easy and rapid transfer
of data that may be required in the
event of an emergency.
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