Biosecurity NZ committed to tough FMD protections

He says that yesterday (20 July) Australian officials said viral fragments were found on some pork product.

“They have told us that what was found in the food was not live virus, but a trace viral fragment.  Viral fragments are not infectious and could not transfer live virus to another animal. It is not unusual for non-infectious viral fragments to be found in food,” Anderson says.

The product was an imported dried ‘pork floss’ product that may have been illegally imported to Australia and was being recalled as a precaution for that reason.

Any illegal product found in New Zealand would be destroyed.

Anderson says that so far there is no indication of any heightened risk to New Zealand.

“We have among the strictest import health standards and biosecurity settings in the world for pork and other meat products coming into New Zealand,” he adds.

Anderson says Pork floss can be legally imported to countries like New Zealand and Australia if it follows strict import health standards, such as the use of heat treatment.

“As an extra precaution Biosecurity New Zealand will undertake market surveillance to double check product available here is legally imported.”

He says travellers arriving in New Zealand cannot bring in uncooked meat products.

“Since FMD was found in Indonesia recently, we have stepped up our work at the border to prevent FMD arriving in New Zealand. Every passenger arrival card is examined and those from countries that have FMD (including Indonesia) are directed to a different process of questioning, baggage search and disinfection. This means that should passengers transit other airports, risks are still addressed.

“All mail products that come into New Zealand from Indonesia are x-rayed and checked by dogs.  We risk assess and our quarantine officers are checking all cargo containers coming from Indonesia,” Anderson says.

“We are committed to constantly reassessing our multi-layered biosecurity settings as we have done in recent weeks with regard to FMD,” Mr Anderson said. “Those settings include risk assessments of all arrivals and cargo, 100 per cent screening of all checked in and cabin baggage, detector dogs and very strong import health standards.”

His statement comes after Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor announced further measures to protect New Zealand against FMD.

These measures include the use of foot mats with disinfecting chemicals for arrivals from Indonesia, a new awareness campaign targeting travellers before they travel to Indonesia, an on the ground audit of the PKE supply chain in Indonesia, and an FMD Readiness Taskforce.

“I call on everyone to be vigilant in playing their part to protect New Zealand’s economic security,” O’Connor said.

“We do not currently have any flights directly from Bali or elsewhere in Indonesia to New Zealand. Regardless of this, every passenger arrival card is examined and those from countries that have FMD (including Indonesia) are directed to a different process of questioning, baggage search and disinfection. This means that should passengers transit other airports, risks are still addressed.”

“We’ll continue to work closely with our Australian counterparts and primary sector partners, and I thank them for their work to raise FMD awareness.

“Our primary sector earned New Zealand a record $52.2 billion this year and is forecast to reach $56.8 billion by 2026. It’s essential that our world class biosecurity systems are continually improving so we can maintain this growth,” O’Connor said.