While officiating at the Bovine Tuberculosis and Bovine Brucellosis Eradication Forum, Agriculture Permanent Secretary Ritesh Dass says the deadly diseases have caused dairy production to drop by 8 percent in 2017.

Hotels are importing over $7m worth of beef annually.

This is due to the shortage of cattle in the livestock industry caused by tuberculosis and brucellosis.

While officiating at the Bovine Tuberculosis and Bovine Brucellosis Eradication Forum, Agriculture Permanent Secretary Ritesh Dass says the deadly diseases have caused dairy production to drop by 8 percent in 2017.

Dass says the diseases are also affecting the dairy sector where it is only producing half of Fiji’s liquid milk market.

“The cattle industry, we can definitely up our numbers, dairy, I think we can achieve our full sales efficiency in at least the liquid milk market, as a first phase, it’s definitely doer able. Guess what TB and brucellosis are getting in the way. So we fix this, I think we got ourselves a home run.”

Dass says their new five-year Strategic Development Plan includes a systematic national BTEC strategy which will have a national cattle ID system, improved animal husbandry, and consistent veterinary services to help address the issue.

The Government also continues to support the Biosecurity of Fiji in their important frontline role in combating, controlling and managing the two diseases.