Victoria is preparing for any potential foot and mouth outbreak with a new, high-level task force
A new, emergency animal disease task force has been formed to plan a rapid response to any future outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Victoria.
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A new animal disease task force has been established in Victoria to prepare for a potential foot and mouth outbreak.
Recent cases of FMD have been detected in Indonesia, sparking fears that the disease could make its way to Australia via visitors or tourists returning from the island nation.
An outbreak would have the potential to cruel animal welfare and production in many livestock industries such as cattle, pigs and sheep.
Federal government estimates show that the overall impact of an outbreak could lead to long-term economic losses worth tens of billions of dollars.
More than 300 Agriculture Victoria biosecurity staff are undergoing FMD-specific training, and state Agriculture Minister Gayle Tierney said “we’re doing the work now to protect our industry”.
This includes setting up the new Emergency Animal Disease Task force that will plan for a rapid response should an outbreak occur in Victoria.
The task force will be co-chaired by Agriculture Victoria Chief Executive Officer Matt Lowe and Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp, while taking advice from Victoria Chief Vet Graeme Cooke.
Animal assessments are ongoing via a mandatory tag system, but Ms Tierney said the most significant risk of an outbreak is through illegal meat and dairy products infected with the FMD virus, being fed to pigs.
“Risk assessment and preparedness is key in ensuring we’re best placed to respond if there is a positive detection in livestock in Victoria,” she said.
Dr Cooke said foot-and-mouth disease was not yet in Australia “and we all need to keep it that way by having robust measures protecting Australia’s border”.
He said it was also “necessary to have plans in place which continue to be worked on in case they are ever needed”.
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