Two former UQ students are helping Indonesia improve its quarantine services.
The graduates, Russell Hunter, 21 and Pat Boland, 57, are working on the Indonesian Quarantine Strengthening Project being carried out by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.
The two-year $1 million project, funded by the Australian Agency for International Development aims to reduce the impact of bird flu on rural livelihoods.
Mr Boland, a veterinary science graduate from 1972, is the project manager while Mr Hunter, a 2005 Veterinary Technology and Management graduate, is the project support officer.
Mr Hunter said the project would improve Indonesia’s quarantine policy and operations, public awareness of quarantine issues and increase quarantine laboratory and technical capacity.
“Its main focus is improving the understanding and the capacity of Indonesia’s quarantine systems particularly with regard to highly pathogenic avian influenza,” Mr Hunter said.
Bird flu is endemic across Indonesia but Mr Boland will run quarantine workshops and training with Indonesian quarantine officers which are expected to also help control other diseases and pests.
He said some of the other quarantine projects would be tailored public awareness activities catering to the specific region and particularly to women who usually raise village chickens and prepare food.
He said they would also assess the use of other quarantine technology such as x- ray scanners, better communication equipment at different seaports along with better data collection on biosecurity, resource allocation, poultry deaths and on all goods coming through ports and airports.
They are also hoping to improve access to quarantine laboratory services.
Most of their work will be with the Indonesian Agricultural Quarantine Agency and partner institutions such as the Directorate General of Livestock Services and provincial livestock services.
Mr Boland, who has worked with many foreign governments, and Mr Hunter, who spent two years living in Jakarta in the late 1990s, travelled to Jakarta last week coordinate quarantine meetings and public awareness activities.
As a graduate of UQ’s new Bachelor of Veterinary Technology and Management, Mr Hunter wants to set up a forum for veterinary technology graduates called Veterinary Technology Australia, within two years.
He said this professional body would provide graduates relevant information to their industry and also raise awareness of Veterinary Technology in the broader community.
Veterinary technologists are new veterinary paraprofessionals who support vets in a range of fields such as clinical practice, animal biosecurity and animal health and welfare.
MEDIA: Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (07 3365 2619) or AQIS media officer Carson Creagh (0414 577 472)
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