The leg of an animal which may have come from a country where foot and mouth disease is wide spread, has been discovered on a dairy farm in Bay of Plenty.
Farmers say sloppy biosecurity is placing New Zealand agriculture in grave danger.
The Ministry for Primary Industries said an 18cm piece of a lower leg from an exotic goat or deer species has been found by a Bay of Plenty farmer in a shipment of palm kernel expeller.
New Zealand imports the majority of its PKE from Malaysia where foot and mouth disease is rampant.
Federated Farmers has repeatedly raised concerns about PKE imports. It believes MPI has no idea what conditions it's being produced in, and that it's an obvious pathway for foot and mouth or other foreign diseases to get into the country.
Grain and seed spokesperson David Clark said he's shocked at the finding and it's extremely serious for agriculture in New Zealand.
He said he's not surprised that part of an animal carcass has been found in PKE and a trip that he took to a mill in Malaysia in September 2012 showed it was highly likely that animals could end up entering PKE supply.
Mr Clark said there have been stories about animal carcasses in PKE over the years, but the ministry did not investigate with any serious intent.
He said there should now be an entire recall of the line of PKE in which the piece of animal carcass was found so that MPI can find the remainder of the carcass and ensure that it's removed from the feed supply of dairy cows in New Zealand.
Tighter rules
MPI said the rules around PKE will now be tightened - and that it's sending a senior staff member to Malaysia and Indonesia to try and stop PKE coming here from unapproved facilities.
It acknowledges that contaminated PKE is a viable pathway for foot and mouth disease to get into New Zealand but says a vet didn't find any signs of animal disease on the Bay of Plenty farm.
In 2002, the Reserve Bank estimated an outbreak of foot and mouth would cost New Zealand $8 billion, in the first year and $13 billion by the end of year two.
Over the last eight years, PKE imports have risen from 100,000 tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes as dairy farmers import cheap supplementary feed for their cows.
The Ministry for Primary Industries said it does not know where the rest of the animal is or what country it came from, but farmers should call its biosecurity hotline on 0800 809966 if they find more animal body parts in their palm kernel.
MPI says it hasn't recalled the rest of that line of PKE.
MPI deputy director general Andrew Coleman said the ministry initially thought the leg was of New Zealand origin.
Five weeks later testing has revealed that this was not the case.
Mr Coleman said no other farmers have called the MPI biosecurity hotline to inform them of goat or deer parts.
