New Zealand biosecurity officials have just returned from Exercise Walnut - an animal disease exercise in the United Kingdom.
The Ministry for Primary Industries said the exercise simulated an outbreak of swine fever.
Deputy director-general Andrew Coleman said it was valuable as New Zealand officials got to observe how the UK manages issues such as stock movement control and management and also carcase disposal during an outbreak of a highly contagious disease.
But MPI officials were specifically interested in learning as much as they could about vaccination.
Mr Coleman said they learned for example, that there are nine serotypes of foot and mouth, and vaccination would depend on which variation of the disease they were dealing with.
