ABUJA – Dr Chukwudi Chukwu, Chief Executive Officer, Aquatic Biosecurity Awareness Foundation, has urged the Federal Government to put in place necessary biosecurity infrastructure to check “invasive diseases’’ in the country.
Chukwu made the call on Sunday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
NAN reports that Biosecurity is a set of preventive measures designed to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases.
These are diseases that can affect crops and livestock, quarantined pests, invasive alien species, and living modified organisms.
He said that the declining manpower and technical strength in the civil service and biosecurity infrastructure needed to be addressed.
Chukwu, however, noted that the government alone could not do that due to dwindling capabilities of institutions and called on corporate organisations to collaborate with government to address the issue.
He said that biosecurity was strategic and therefore, required integrated approach that encompasses policy and regulatory frameworks to analyse and manage risks in areas of plants, food safety, animal life and health.
Chukwu commended the Federal Government for the effective management of Ebola outbreak, noting that the feat was achieved through aggressive awareness by the government on the disease.
He recalled that outbreak of diseases such as HIV/Aids and bird flu among others in the past had made the government to develop effective mechanisms for quick responds to invasive diseases.
Chukwu called for inter-agency collaboration to check future invasions of diseases.
NAN reports that Aquatic Biosecurity Awareness Foundation was formed in 2014 to advocate for the protection of the nation’s aquatic resources from external invasion of diseases.
