Renovation Underway For NAQIA Labs

Australia has announced that it will support in renovating NAQIA’s laboratories that will help to improve PNG’s capacity to detect and control emergency animal diseases.

NAQIA’s National Animal Health & Food Testing Laboratory Facility in Kilakila will be renovated through the PHAMA Plus program funded by the Australian Government.

The improvements will help to increase the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) capability. This is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it to a large enough amount to study in detail.

The improvements include infrastructure support services in electrical, mechanical and hydraulic.

Australian High Commission Minister-Counsellor, Diane Barclay said that Australia was proud in announcing the additional support to refurbish the laboratory and support services at NAHFTL facility.

Ms Barclay said the support is critical now more than ever as there is an increased occurrence of animal diseases like the African Swine Fever (ASF) that threatens PNG livelihoods.

The support will complement a laboratory capacity development project with NAQIA supported by Australia’s CSIRO, to develop PNG’s PCR diagnostic capacity.

“Our support will significantly improve diagnostic testing capability and emergency response. It will also support NAHFTL capacity to provide rapid testing for disease investigations and potentially serve as a regional reference laboratory for the Pacific,” Barclay said.

NAQIA Managing Director, Joel Alu thanked the Australian Government for the timely support in improving and enhancing the laboratory capacity.

Alu acknowledged the support of the PHAMA Plus program in providing the necessities to help NAQIA in managing and containing the ASF outbreak in the country.

Author: 
Press Release