Story: Diseases of sheep, cattle and deer

New Zealand is free of foot-and-mouth disease, and Biosecurity New Zealand is constantly on the alert for a possible outbreak. In 1981 there was a suspected outbreak in pigs on a farm near Temuka. The property was quarantined, and all its pigs and sheep were killed, burnt and buried. It was later confirmed that the pigs had developed blisters on their snouts as a result of their diet, not from foot-and-mouth disease.