Independent scientific reviews

and official documents on 1080

What alternatives are there to poisoning?

1984	King, C.	Oxford University Press. P 183	Immigrant Killers. Introduced Predators and the conservation of birds in New Zealand	“The hardy species are the ones that have survived on the main islands for at least a hundred years in company with the whole range of predators and other habitat changes, and therefore are able to come to some sort of terms with them. The management policy appropriate for them is that of conservation, defined in a recent, thought-provoking textbook as denoting ‘programmes for the long-term retention of natural communities under conditions which provide the potential for continuing evolution’.7 What conditions do they require? Simply to be left alone in their natural habitat, and enough of it. In the long run, the continued survival of any species genotype is impossible outside the habitat to which it is adapted: conservation of species and of habitat are the same thing.”
2014	The Royal Society of New Zealand	Emerging Issues March 2014	Challenges for pest management in New Zealand	“The inherent limitations of existing pest management approaches underline the need for either new technologies or on-going refinement of existing methods. In particular there needs to be a trend away from the use of pesticides to more knowledge-intensive, biologically based control systems”
2015	Russell, J.C., Innes, J.G., Brown, P.N. & Byrom, A.E.	Bioscience 65(5): 520-525	Predator-free New Zealand: Conservation Country	“Currently, control of mammalian predators worldwide relies on technologies developed over 50 years ago – that is, mechanical single-capture traps and broad-spectrum anticoagulant poisons. These tools should be phased out and replaced with new technologies that achieve greater efficacy and public acceptance while simultaneously reducing costs (Campbell et al. 2015), such as automated self-resetting traps with remote monitoring (Blackie et al. 2014), engineered species specific toxins (Rennison et al. 2013), highly attractive lures (Linklater et al. 2013), viruses as a delivery mechanism for fertility control agents (Cross et al. 2011) and the Trojan Female Technique to produce infertile males through the female mitochondrial line (Gemmell et al. 2013).”
2012	Jones, C., Barron, M., Warburton, B., Coleman, M., Lyver, P. O’B & Nugent, G.	Biological Conservation 153: 143-152	Serving two masters: Reconciling economic and biodiversity outcomes of brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) for fur harvest in an indigenous New Zealand Forest	“If, however, aerial control is not possible, commercial trapping could deliver the same degree of control at lower cost than standard ground control. Further, aerial methods are not economic for repeated “press” control, whereas harvest can be; neither do they deliver any socio-economic benefits to local communities as would a secure harvest industry in, for example, both providing secure long-term employment where it is most needed and by supporting the local community’s kaitiakitanga (traditional guardianship/duty of care) of their forest environment. The potential therefore exists for trialling an integrated management approach with input from the fur industry, conservation and disease managers and local harvesters to support harvesters to trap to lower-than-normal TCU rates to test our predictions of both possum recovery rates and associated effects of harvest on biodiversity values. There is further potential for investigating the associated costs and benefits of localized ground-based control of introduced rats in forests by harvesters, whilst servicing possum trap-lines, in an integrated management strategy.”
2015	Livingstone, P.G., Hancox, N., Nugent, G. & de Lisle, G.W.	NZ Veterinary Journal 63 (Supp 1):4-18	Toward eradication: the effect of Mycobacterium bovis infection in wildlife on the evolution and future direction of bovine tuberculosis management in New Zealand	“key technological developments…included…Development of an oral bait BCG vaccine for possums…The oral bait BCG vaccine was developed as insurance in case other control methods became unavailable or failed to achieve the required reduction in possum densities to eradicate.”
2008	AHB	AHB Annual Research Report 2007-2008	Vaccine Programme	“In the event that vector control is no longer able to be so intensively applied in the future, it may be necessary to have other options to prevent livestock becoming infected. In this context the AHB has contracted Landcare Research to undertake a major five year field trial in order to determine the efficacy of BCG vaccination in protecting cattle from TB infection resulting from natural challenge from possums and other wildlife…While there is growing confidence that the oral vaccine will provide significant protection for possums against bovine TB, there may be limited uses for the vaccine in NZ due to the fact that culling is just as effective, and probably more cost-efficient, in reducing TB infection in wild possum populations.”
2015	Campbell, K.J., Beek, J., Eason, C.T., Glen, A.S., Godwin, J., Gould, F., Holmes, N.D., Howald, G.R., Madden, F.M., Ponder, J. B., Threadgill, D.W., Wegmann, A.S., Baxter, G.S.	Biological Conservation 185:47-58	The next generation of rodent eradications: Innovative technologies and tools to improve species specificity and increase their feasibility on islands	“Self-resetting traps and toxicant delivery systems provide a potential opportunity to reduce non-target impacts, field effort and overall costs on projects that they can be integrated into. Self-resetting devices that are target-specific, have high efficacy and where deployed in a network are capable of eradicating would be transformative.”
2016	Farmers Against Ten Eighty	Scoop 13 May 2016	Federated Farmers Challenged Over Tb-free Rort	“establish a couple of younger, independent thinking vets within the Ministry of Primary Industries to mop up any remaining disease, de-structure any other organisations and adhere to World standards regarding Tb.” The very few herds which continued with Tb infection could be depopulated and replaced with “top of the line” animals and a “how to” programme of maintaining that disease-free quality.”