Frontline biosecurity scientists at Lincoln University welcome the public reminder by Biosecurity Minister Jim Anderton that “biosecurity is crucial to New Zealand”.
Speaking at the opening of the MAF Biosecurity Centre at Auckland Airport on 6 September, Mr Anderton stressed that the ability of New Zealand’s primary production sector to compete in global markets depended on the country’s biosecurity assurance.
“Our livelihoods depend on keeping pests and diseases out, protecting our natural advantage and providing assurances to our trade,” said Mr Anderton.
The Director of the Lincoln University-based National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies, Professor Alison Stewart, said that she and the centre’s staff agreed wholeheartedly with the Minister’s statement that it was vital for New Zealand to have a robust biosecuity system and be ever vigilant against pest and disease incursions.
“New Zealand definitely needs the capability to respond quickly and effectively to major threats to our valuable, export-earning primary industries,” says Professor Stewart.
“Staff of the national centre who are working at the frontline of biosecurity defence technologies, such as the rapid DNA barcoding approach to pest identification at border entry points, live daily with an awareness of the importance of their work to New Zealand’s economic livelihood.
“The centre’s researchers are world leaders in the development of biosecurity technology and the development of risk assessment models.
“Every input we can make as bio-protection scientists is an investment in the on-going capacity of New Zealand to be a major exporter of primary produce,” says Professor Stewart.
The Lincoln University based National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies was opened by Prime Minister Helen Clark in March 2004 as one of the country’s seven Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs). In June this year it received renewed Government funding of almost $24 million for the period through to 2015.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
Ian Collins
Communications Group
Lincoln University
Canterbury
Tel: 64 3 325 2811 ext 8549
Email: Ian Collins