Chicken diseases a real risk to PNG

THERE are two types of diseases which can make chickens sick – bird flu and Newcastle disease.
They are real, putting PNG chic­ken far­mers and consumers at risk.
Bird flu or avian influenza (AI) is a viral chicken disease.
It can kill from 40% to 100% of
all chickens within days of infection.
Chickens that survive are very sick and will spread the virus to
wild birds and domestic chickens.
There are no drug treatments and no vaccines available.
Variants of this virus can be very dangerous to humans.
There are now resistant variant strains of AI resistant to Tamiflu medicines for humans.
Newcastle disease (ND) is a widespread viral chicken disease and, if introduced, can kill 100% of chickens within days.
Any surviving chickens will spread the virus to other chickens and wild birds.
People, wild birds, clothing, equipment, etc, can carry the virus
and spread it very quickly.
ND is not dangerous to humans.
There is no treatment and no drugs.
Vaccines are available but are expensive and electricity is re­-
quir­ed to store them.
Both the AI and ND virus can be transmitted by uncooked chicken and eggs, which have been the
cause of outbreaks in the past.
If an outbreak were to occur in PNG, the National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Autho­rity’s (NAQIA) preference is era­dication.
This will require tens of millions of kina and resources that NAQIA does not have.
If NAQIA is unable to eradicate the AI and ND and the viruses become established in PNG and spread, thousands of PNG small chicken farmers would not survive.
The very high cost that all chic-­ken farmers are coping with along with these dangerous viral diseases that may result in food shortages, especially in rural areas, is a serious food security risk to PNG.
Farmers who do survive would have to pass these substantial additional costs to consumers.
Australia has a “cooked-only” policy for all chicken and egg im­ports to protect their biosecurity.
As an Australian-trained veterinarian, I am disgusted that the Australian government continues to assist virus-contaminated chicken and eggs to be exported uncooked
to PNG when it knows of the biosecurity and economic risks here.

Dr Philip Leahy
Via email