Minister Watt said biosecurity is a central component of
"Minister O'Connor and I had a very good meeting and reaffirmed our commitment to maintaining stringent arrangements to protect our countries' respective biosecurity status'," Minister Watt said.
"We discussed ongoing work by senior biosecurity officials to harmonise approaches where possible, primarily focusing on how we are managing the risks of FMD.
"Both countries are signatories to the International Animal Health Emergency Reserve, which would afford us additional human resources in the event of an emergency animal disease outbreak, allowing for faster control and increased chances of eradication."
Minister O'Connor said greater cooperation was integral to reducing biosecurity risks in our region as threats from FMD and fruit fly loomed over
"I am very pleased to have discussed joint efforts to strengthen preparedness and response capabilities with Minister Watt today and evolve our biosecurity interventions, so we stay in step with each other" Minister O'Connor said.
"Since 2018,
"We continue to work together on a range of biosecurity initiatives, such as increasing our intelligence capacity to ensure our biosecurity systems are world's best."
http://www.beehive.govt.nz
.
(C) 2022 M2 COMMUNICATIONS, source