Why our future depends on taking biosecurity seriously
OPINION: When it comes to biosecurity, we often hear about the end of a response, but it’s the beginning that helps determine our success.
Biosecurity officials have reported the bizarre discovery of two massive ostrich eggs in the luggage of a passenger at Auckland airport.
A Ministry for Primary Industries quarantine inspector intercepted the undeclared eggs during a recent baggage search of a South African passport holder who had arrived from Melbourne.
The two whole eggs with yolk each weighed around 1.5kg. They were found loosely wrapped in newspaper.
The passenger was fined $400 and will face increased scrutiny by biosecurity officials if they make further flights to New Zealand, says operational support coordinator Steve Gay.
He says the eggs posed a high biosecurity risk to New Zealand.
"There was the chance they could be carrying avian diseases. And we can't write off the idea that the eggs were going to be used for breeding," he says.
"It beggars belief that the passenger could possibly forget to declare something so obvious in size and so risky for our primary sector and environment.
"Air passengers pass more than 30 signs asking them to declare or dispose risk items before they even speak to a quarantine inspector."
Meat co-operative, Alliance has met with a group of farmer shareholders, who oppose the sale of a controlling stake in the co-op to Irish company Dawn Meats.
Rollovers of quad bikes or ATVs towing calf milk trailers have typically prompted a Safety Alert from Safer Farms, the industry-led organisation dedicated to fostering a safer farming culture across New Zealand.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
A group of Kiwi farmers are urging Alliance farmer-shareholders to vote against a deal that would see the red meat co-operative sell approximately $270 million in shares to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.
Dawn Meats is set to increase its proposed investment in Alliance Group by up to $25 million following stronger than forecast year-end results by Alliance.
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