Deer farm

The first deer were brought to the country from England and Scotland for sport in the mid to late 19th century, and released mainly in the Southern Alps and surrounding foothills.

By the middle of the 20th century, these nonnative deer were regarded as pests because of their impact on the native forests.

Industry pioneers saw an opportunity to build on this base, and in the early 1970s started capturing live deer from the wild and farming them.

[citation needed] Since chronic wasting disease (CWD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy similar to mad cow disease, can pass from wild populations of deer to farmed deer, there has been some fear of contamination of the food supply.

[citation needed] The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries undertakes an extensive testing programme which would identify the disease if it occurred in the national deer herd.