Far too late!

Should have happened last year.  Immediately without question.

"The de-population of entire herds on all 28 Infected Properties (IPs) in New Zealand is a critical measure to control the spread of the disease and we will be working closely with those farmers to plan how this will happen," said MPI's response director Geoff Gwyn.

"This will be a big job and won't happen overnight, but we'll be meeting with the affected farmers in the coming days to discuss the operation, develop the plans and talk through compensation."

I'd hate to see how they'd handle a foot and mouth outbreak.

"Eradication is what everybody would like but it has to be technically possible, practically achievable and affordable for all. If we can't improve NAIT [National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme] compliance, we cannot get past go."

One thing, long suspected, it has proven to me beyond question is that OSPRI / NAIT is an expensively useless bureaucracy.   The two co-reside in the same building and do not talk to each other. The $64K question yet to be answered by MPI is how did the disease get here in the first instance?

It is a pity we cannot similarly depopulate the Beehive and its environs.  No need for further conversations or compensation.  None would be missed at all.