Border controls 'not enough'

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

An expert on epidemics has warned that new border protection measures may not shield the economy from imported diseases.

Professor Roger Morris of Massey University believes New Zealand needs to do more to protect itself than the $4.6 million of extra border controls announced by the Government.

New measures to keep out diseases include 11 teams of sniffer dogs, extra x-ray gear to examine all incoming baggage, and 34 more quarantine officers and 43 assistants to run soft-tissue machines.

"We need effective surveillance systems [within the country] and that is the area that has been most run down over the last 10 years," Professor Morris said.

New Zealand was the best prepared of any country for an outbreak but must also be able to provide continuing evidence that it was free of the disease.