1 May 2013

PNG Poultry Assoc pins hopes on containment of bird disease

8:50 pm on 1 May 2013

There are hopes an outbreak of Newcastle bird disease can be contained within the Papua New Guinea town of Wutung on the Indonesian border.

The president of the PNG Poultry Producers Association, Stanley Leahy says the outbreak is very concerning.

He says it is the first time Newcastle disease has been found on the PNG mainland, although it is endemic in neighbouring Indonesia.

Mr Leahy says the association wants the infected birds eradicated immediately and says it will compensate for losses.

The National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority is surveying around Wutung and Mr Leahy says the hope is the disease will not spread.

"NAQIA believes it should be relatively simple for them to contain if it is just in Wutung, which is why they are doing surveillance work at the moment to figure out just how far it has spread. The difference between the village situation and the commercial situation is significantly different in that we are not talking about 100s of thousands of birds here, we are talking about 100s to possibly thousands of birds, to eradicate."

Stankey Leahy.