NSW: DPP to consider charges over Newcastle Disease outbreak

AAP General News (Australia)
12-01-1999
NSW: DPP to consider charges over Newcastle Disease outbreak

SYDNEY, Dec 1 AAP - The Director of Public Prosecutions is reportedly considering whether
to lay charges over the outbreak of Newcastle poultry disease on the New South Wales Central
Coast earlier this year.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Brisbane Water detectives spent seven months
investigating the April outbreak, including allegations a supplier to Inghams lost thousands
of stock months before the official outbreak but failed to notify the Department of Agriculture.

A virulent strain of the disease was uncovered in April, and resulted in a massive
quarantine operation in which millions of chickens were killed.

The outbreak threatened Australia's $1.4 billion chicken industry and cost producers
and the government tens of millions of dollars, the newspaper said.

If a prosecution proceeds it would be the first under the Exotic Diseases of Animals
Act, the newspaper reported.

AAP km/was

KEYWORD: NEWCASTLE (CARRIED EARLIER)

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