Pig hunters are being toasted in Northland for their role in helping reassure the region it is TB free.

Hunters have supplied the heads of more than 400 pigs caught in Northland over the last two years to the Animal Health Board which has then tested them for tuberculosis.

All the results have come back negative.

TBfree Northland committee chairman, Neil MacMillan, said pigs are an excellent species for indicating whether an area has tuberculosis.

“Of course the pigs go out scavenging and they will pick the TB up – and the other thing is it very easy to see.

"So when a pig hunter goes out he cuts the head off normally and that’s where you can see the TB lesions in the glands in the neck.”