Good afternoon,

On behalf of Hon Nathan Guy, thank you for your email.

The Minister is considering your request in accordance with the Official Information Act and will reply to you in due course.

Kind regards,

Millie Carr | Private Secretary
Office of Hon Nathan Guy
Minister for Primary Industries | Minister for Racing | MP for Otaki
5.3R The Beehive, Parliament Buildings
Private Bag 18041, Wellington 6160, New Zealand
T: +64 4 817 9139
E: [email address]
W: http://www.beehive.govt.nz and http://www.parliament.nz

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Stephenson [mailto:[FYI request #5049 email]]
Sent: Thursday, 1 December 2016 1:26 p.m.
To: N Guy (MIN)
Subject: Official Information request - Border Bio Security

Dear Minister for Primary Industries,

Biosecurity and RHDV resilience and transmission.
RHDV2 has rapidly spread across Australia and is now present across the entire Australian continent with multiple direct links to New Zealand posing an incredible risk of being carried by one of the 1,384,432 visitors who arrive from Australia to New Zealand each year. This strain of RHDV2 which is now believed to be a recombinant G1/RHDV2, strain requires fewer virus particle to infect and is most likely the reason it has been able to spread so far and so quickly, posing a greatly increased risk of arrival in New Zealand.

MPI state that the risk of RHDV2 arriving from Australia is seen as low, this contradicts MAF, who state that as RCD spreads throughout Australia the risk of accidental arrival in New Zealand increases. They carry on to state and thereby confirm multiple scientific peer studies, that RCD is a very tough virus that can survive freezing, and remain infective on fabric for over 100 days at 20 degrees C. It is killed by higher temperatures (over 60 degrees C for two days) and sunlight. The most likely source of accidental introduction is on goods, clothing or livestock arriving from Australia. An illegal introduction cannot be discounted.

It only takes one person out of the 1.3 million arriving passengers to unknowingly walk on ground where an infected rabbit has been to then carry the virus to New Zealand.

So the question is how Bio Security will find and stop this virus from entering New Zealand. The virus particle being around 35 to 40nm in size and only a few virus particle on one out of 1,300,000 passengers?

Yours faithfully,

Gary Stephenson

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Good morning,

 

On behalf of Hon Nathan Guy your request has been transferred to the
Ministry for Primary Industries under section 14 of the Official
Information Act 1982. Please refer to the attached document for
information.

 

Any further correspondence to you on your request will come from the
Ministry for Primary Industries.

 

Kind regards,

 

Millie Carr | Private Secretary

Office of Hon Nathan Guy

Minister for Primary Industries | Minister for Racing | MP for Otaki

5.3R The Beehive, Parliament Buildings

Private Bag 18041, Wellington 6160, New Zealand

W: [1]http://www.beehive.govt.nz and [2]http://www.parliament.nz

 

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/
2. http://www.parliament.nz/

Dear Gary Stephenson,

 

On behalf of Geoff Gwyn Director Readiness and Response Services please
find attached a response to your official information act request.

 

Regards,

 

Alastair

Alastair Gilby | Adviser – Official Information Act
Office of the Director-General | Ministerials and Business Support
Ministry for Primary Industries - Manatû Ahu Matua | Pastoral House 25
The Terrace | PO Box 2526 | Wellington 6140
New Zealand
Web: [1]www.mpi.govt.nz

 

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