Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment, Dr Mahendra Reddy has confirmed in Parliament that the African Swine Fever is not in Fiji and the importation of pork and pork products for personal consumption has already been banned.
He stated this while responding to Assistant Minister for Health, Alexander O’Connor who had asked Dr.Reddy to inform them about the precautionary and mitigation measures taken by the Ministry to prevent the introduction of the African Swine Fever to our shores.
Dr Reddy says the Biosecurity Authority of Fiji has the mandate to protect the Fijian borders against exotic diseases that would affect plant and animal status.
Dr.Reddy says we are only importing pork and pork products from Australia and New Zealand and these two countries have no known cases of African Swine Fever until now.
He adds that certified companies from Australia and New Zealand are approved with certain protocols for commercial use of imported pork.
He further says they are undertaking various trainings for their staff and commercial farms, should there be a slip, how they could handle and deal with the particular area where the disease have been found.
