Authority announces swine flu response team

THE National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority (Naqia) on Friday announced a national response taskforce team to coordinate awareness on the African swine fever (ASF).
Managing director Joel Alu said the authority had surpassed three months of awareness on the disease which mostly affected pigs.
He said the ASF was still contained in Southern Highlands, Hela and Enga.
However, Alu said they had extended their containment programmes to Western.
The national response taskforce team comprises representatives from Food Agriculture Organisation, National Agriculture Research Institute, University of Goroka and Pacific Horticulture and Agriculture Market Access Programme.
Alu announced chief veterinarian Dr Ilagi Puana as the taskforce controller on Friday.
Puana discouraged foreign companies bringing in pork products and wants them to abide by PNG laws.
He noted that ASF could be contained but said people and foreign firms could help protect the country’s billion-kina pig industry.
Alu said funding remained a constraint, adding that provincial governments of declared diseased areas had yet to help Naqia.