New Zealand is about to test its readiness for foot and mouth disease with a farm simulation next month on a Taranaki farm. 

It'll be followed by a national exercise including everything from mock on-farm detection, quarantine, and national governance decisions. 

Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says it's one thing to have a plan on paper and another to actually carry it out.  

He told Ryan Bridge other countries have managed to effectively contain it.  

Hoggard says in Germany it was kept at a single farm and still meant exports could go ahead from the rest of the country. 

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