Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

1080 drop to begin this week

Updated at 12:43 pm on 19 May 2011

The Animal Health Board will begin an aerial 1080-poison drop this week in the central North Island.

The Hauhungaroa Range is one of several areas where the board is trying to eradicate bovine tuberculosis from wildlife, mainly possums, over the next 15 years.

Hauhungaroa Range is located west of Lake Taupo.

Northern North Island regional co-ordinator Frank Pavitt says the TB control programme has made significant gains in the area, with infected herd numbers dropping to historic lows.

But possums continue to carry the disease and spread it to farmed cattle and deer.

The board announced earlier this week it is also planning an extensive ground and aerial bovine possum control operation north of Taupo.

The operation will cover about 5000 hectares near Wairakei.

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