Disease control at ports ‘poor’

01 June 2007
Disease control at ports ‘poor’


CAPE TOWN — Auditor-general Terence Nombembe has uncovered shortcomings in the agriculture department’s import inspection services that expose the country to risk of pests and diseases, including avian flu.

In his performance audit tabled in Parliament yesterday, he said no integrated information system for recording and reporting on department import inspections had been established. Inspectors and managers did not have the necessary information on imports to allow them to systematically target those posing the highest risk. So it was not possible to ensure high-risk consignments were inspected in time to ensure proactive detection of pests and diseases, he said.

Because of lack of equipment and infrastructure at the ports of entry, a high percentage of consignments arriving were not inspected at the port of entry itself.

They were given temporary release forms with orders that required them to be inspected at a predetermined site.

There was, however, no follow-up or reconciliation procedure in place to ensure all consignments would be inspected later.


“One of the main elements of disease- control is the swift tracing of animals that have been exposed to infection. Ineffective and inconsistent procedures were used at the various ports of entry to document and file inspection-related docu-ments.”

The absence of a document trail meant that evidence would not be available for effectively tracking, tracing and containing outbreaks of diseases. Sapa