This special supplementary issue of the New Zealand Veterinary Journal brings together an extensive body of work describing the campaign to control bovine tuberculosis in New Zealand, which commenced more than a century ago. The papers in this issue focus on the past 50 years, and look forward to a future where tuberculosis has been eradicated in New Zealand. The process of writing and compiling these reviews has also been a major endeavour, requiring an extensive team of participants, commencing with the approach made to the previous Editor-in-chief, Petra Muellner, in January 2013. Over the following 18 months the nine submitted articles were all reviewed by an international panel of experts in the field, as well as by members of the New Zealand Veterinary Journal Editorial Board, whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged. In addition, Professor Richard (Dez) Delahay, Wildlife Biologist at the National Wildlife Management Centre, Animal and Plant Health Agency, UK has provided the Guest Editorial introducing these reviews and we thank him for his contribution.
One concern highlighted by reviewers was reference to the extensive body of research that was not available in the public domain; these references mainly consisted of research reports describing the results of studies conducted for the Animal Health Board of New Zealand. Consequently, all reports referred to in these review articles have now been made available on the TBfree New Zealand website, so that readers not only have access to the summarised information in the reviews, but can also directly access the primary sources of this information (see www.tbfree.org.nz/research-papers.aspx). The assistance of Kirsten Vryenhoek in posting numerous contract reports and legislative/policy documents on the TBfree website is gratefully acknowledged. I also thank my fellow editors, Eve Pleydell, Sarah Olson and Nikki Kells for their copyediting, meticulous checking of references and preparation of these papers for publication.
All papers in this series have been made freely available as open access articles through the sponsorship of OSPRI (Operational Solutions for Primary Industries) New Zealand. OSPRI was established in July 2013 to help protect and enhance the reputation of New Zealand's primary industries. It currently manages the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) and TBfree New Zealand programmes. As highlighted in this feature series, New Zealand is considered a global leader in bovine tuberculosis management and eradication. OSPRI also works to manage other potential pests and diseases, assisting in ensuring New Zealand's primary production sectors remain first class and sustainable. Their research programmes play an important part in the development and implementation of new methods and processes that have the potential to provide more cost effective, efficient and measurable results. Their support in enabling the publication of this supplementary issue on the control of bovine tuberculosis in New Zealand is gratefully acknowledged.