Lupari wants to keep PNG safe

By EREBIR ZURENUOC
CHIEF Secretary Isaac Lupari says a country’s biosecurity system can support and boost agricultural production and exports.
It can also protect human health, social amenity and help maintain unique and bio-diverse natural environments, he said.
“PNG is currently free from some of the major economically devastating poultry/avian diseases such as the Newcastle disease, very virulent infectious bursal disease and the virulent Avian influenza, particularly the H5N1,” he said. “Any disease arrival or a single outbreak of an exotic disease is more likely to destroy the country’s poultry industry.”
He said the poultry industry in PNG contributed around K900 million to the economy and employed around 4000 people.
“It is estimated that more than 200,000 people in remote areas depended on small-scale poultry or live chicken business for their livelihood,” he said.
“Another 100,000 people are assumed to depend on vending cooked eggs on streets and roadside markets. In most rural communities, village chickens and some ducks are kept as protein source and traded for additional family income.”
He said the domestic industry must be protected because it was vulnerable to exotic diseases.