Lepto the sting in Gabrielle’s tail

Richard Rennie NEWS Disease

SURGING levels of leptospirosis infections in people have animal and human health authorities on alert in regions severely affected by flooding, as the disease lingers into the new farming season.

Disease monitoring by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research puts New Zealand’s current rate of human leptospirosis infection at 3.5 per 100,000 people, well up on last year’s 2.4 per 100,000. This is being driven strongly by infections in areas affected by long-term rainfall and Gabrielle’s flood impact.

From February to May this year Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti and Waikato all reported significantly elevated levels of infection, with Hawke’s Bay reporting 25 cases in March alone.

Year to date, 106 people have been infected with the disease, with over half of those, 54, coming from Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay district health regions. In March a higher-than-average number of

Continued from page 1 patients were hospitalised by the disease.

The ANZ business and agri regional manager for East Coast and Lower North Island, Marcus Bousfield, said two-thirds of agri loans are on floating rates and these have reflected the sharp rise of 5% in the OCR over the past 20 months.

“Those borrowers have felt the direct impact of the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy moves, while homeowners are mostly on fixed rates, some of which may be yet to rise. Variable rates for home loans at present are around 8.5% but there is a lag effect still to be worked through.

At the current reported infection rate this year may prove the worst since 2017, when 140 people were affected.

The increased incidence in humans is another sting in Cyclone Gabrielle’s tail and confirms Massey University researchers’ concerns raised earlier this year about elevated disease risk.

They predicted that, a month after the flooding, rodentborne disease outbreaks could start to appear with a strain of leptospirosis carried by rats, and livestock carrying several others.

The disease has the ability to survive in water and soil for several weeks after being shed in the carrier animal’s urine. It is not always easily detected in livestock, but it can be a debilitating disease when contracted by humans.

The significant lifts in the rate of human infections have prompted the Ministry for Primary Industries’ animal health endemic team to notify vets of the elevated risk of the disease spreading in livestock.

John Meban of Eastland Vets in Gisborne said the extended wet

“This is the most volatile time for interest rates since 2008 and unfortunately businesses are feeling it first.”

Regarding the allegation of cross-subsidising housing and business sector lending, Bousfield said business lending is very competitive and any such prolonged disparity would be evident to all business owners.

Farmers have repaid debt in recent times and now that rising costs and falling product prices are occurring together there may be room for switching off principal repayments.

“We acknowledge the very real cost pressures on our big weather suffered by the region over the past 18 months does much to explain the increased incidence of leptospirosis. productive sector, and the speed of the rate rises, and we are here to help our clients through this.”

“Our expectation is that will continue with all the surface flooding and water all around us”.

He said his suspicion is a leptospirosis strain is cycling through local sheep populations.

Westpac head of agribusiness

Tim Henshaw said agri and housing lending portfolios are entirely separate.

“Agri lending rates tend to be higher than housing lending for a number of reasons,” he said. These include differing risk profiles and loan terms.

“Having paid down debt, with strong balance sheets and previous experience, we believe the vast majority of our customers are well-placed to manage the current interest rate cycle.

“You see sick animals when they pick up another strain, often the pig strain Pomona in cattle, which can cause abortion storms. We have seen a bit of leptospirosis in finishing lambs this year too.”

In Hawke’s Bay, VetsOne director and vet Mike Newall has also seen elevated levels of leptospirosis infections in traded lambs, and he

“If they are feeling under strain we encourage them to talk to us, so we can discuss financial options and what other support may be available.”

ASB said that RBNZ capital regulations require banks to hold higher levels of capital for business loans than for home loans, which directly influences pricing.

New capital requirements were introduced in 2022 and will gradually increase until 2028.

“Because of the relative risk profiles, business lending is more impacted by these increases than home lending,” ASB said.

Professor David Tripe of Massey has just had a dairy farming client hospitalised with it for four days.

“There are certainly more cases of it about than we have seen in the past.”

Both vets have been urging farmer clients to consider vaccination of their dairy and breeding cattle. Newall estimates 90% of his dairy clients have herds vaccinated but the rate is only 50% in beef herds.

Massey University veterinary epidemiologist Dr Emilie Vallee said Hawke’s Bay has always been a hot spot for leptospirosis infection, with meatworkers particularly susceptible. She said overseas experience suggests infection rates should drop after the flood event, usually after one to two months.

“These infections seem to be livestock related, judging by the strains being reported.”

She said human infection is a strong signal that the disease is present in the livestock population, with a traditional peak through early spring still to come.

Work by Vallee’s colleague Dr Jackie Benschop, funded by the Health Research Council, has shed more light on NZ’s leptospirosis transmission, and its effects.

University’s School of Economic and Finance, said it would be easy to conclude banks are starving farms and business of finance but there is not enough evidence to draw any conclusions.

“Because so much lending for housing is done at fixed rates, it is a key area for competition. “Some banks got into more trouble than they want on farm lending and this now impacts their approach.”

Rabobank NZ chief executive Todd Charteris said there has been a small increase in nonperforming agri loans during this year, against a backdrop of very low levels in the past decade.

FAR has added value to the maize industry by:

• Providing data to help maize growers optimise N use and without compromising yield.

• Demonstrating the value of different maize establishment techniques for different soils and systems.

• Targeting research on the value of cover crops in maize.

• Supporting the response to fall armyworm and velvetleaf incursions.

• Encouraging good management practice through annual Beyond First Principles workshops.