The country’s ability to cope with an outbreak of the deadly foot and mouth disease will be tested in March when the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry leads a desk-top exercise.

The exercise, designed to test how New Zealand would try to contain a disease that would cause a temporary halt to virtually all meat and dairy exports, will involve the Prime Ministers Department, the Police and Defence.

It will be the first review of its kind for seven years, although there was a hoax on Waiheke Island in the same year.

MAF director general Wayne McNee says the thought of a major biosecurity breach kept him awake at nights. The fast-moving nature of foot and mouth, an incurable viral disease that affects cloven hoofed animals,  would act as a test for many other biosecurity breaches.

An outbreak in Britain led to the slaughter of 10 million cattle and sheep, at a cost of nearly 16 million dollars.

MAF currently has two biosecurity breach reviews under way.

One is the into the decision to allow the importation of pollen which is a possible cause of the PSa virus attacking kiwifruit vines in the Bay of Plenty.

Another is looking at how strawberry plant pots sold at The Warehouse got into the country without the proper tests.