The New Zealand Advantage
New Zealand is a small remote country in the Southern Pacific Ocean, and has been geographically isolated for many thousands of years.
Through stringent control of imports, active monitoring, vigilance, a rigorous autopsy program to monitor the health of their herds and strong government commitment there has never been a case of BSE in New Zealand, and New Zealand is now recognized as having the world's most pristine bovine herds.
New Zealand has one of the best BSE prevention programs in the world, and has been diligent in maintaining the health of their bovine herd for over 75 years. New Zealand feeds cattle through the natural practice of grazing on grassland, supplemented by hay and silage. In addition a voluntary ban was introduced in 1996 on the feeding of ruminant-derived protein (except milk for calves) to all ruminants. This was followed by comprehensive legislation banning the feeding of ruminant protein to ruminants, including spreading of meat and bone meal on pasture as fertiliser.
New Zealand is internationally recognised explicitly and implicitly as free from BSE (mad cow disease), scrapie and foot and mouth disease by the world's regulators, scientists and academics. In July 2000, the EU Scientific Steering Committee (EU SSC) published the results of a 'Geographical BSE-Risk Assessment' of 24 countries. New Zealand was classified in Category 1, the lowest risk category (lowest risk being the highest achievable category). The assessment rated the 'likelihood' that live cattle could be clinically or pre-clinically infected with the BSE agent.
New Zealand's livestock populations are free from TSEs - Scrapie in sheep and goats, BSE in cattle and CWD in deer.
Despite the very low risk of BSE to New Zealand, the New Zealand meat processing and exporting industry is in close consultation with government agencies to constantly review and improve the measures that are in place to ensure they are of the highest standards.
In addition to the world's highest standard of animal health, New Zealand has a process of traceability which offers peace of mind to all international customers. All of Bio International's fetal blood is sourced from New Zealand, from animals that have been born and raised exclusively in New Zealand. The authentication of the New Zealand source comes from the fact that every shipment is accompanied by an official MAF (Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries) export certificate. We harvest fetal blood in only three meat processing facilities (all in the central North Island) and each facility is USDA and EU registered, (and regularly audited).
We are able to offer any customer a service where we can track back from the sterile filtered serum in any batch to the individual farms from which our animals were sourced. We encourage customers to visit New Zealand to see this system in person and are always happy to host our customers and to demonstrate the superior nature of our system and process.
