Australia will need to call on the military if foot and mouth disease breaks out, UK MP and vet warns

Australia needs to be ready to deploy the military if foot and mouth disease takes hold in the country, a British parliamentarian who fought the last UK outbreak has warned.

Neil Hudson.

Australia needs to be ready to deploy the military if foot and mouth disease takes hold in the country, a British parliamentarian who fought the last UK outbreak says.

Neil Hudson, an equine vet, was called up during the FMD outbreak in Britain in 2001.

Such were the horror scenes he saw that he began a political career, becoming Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border in 2019 to influence the standard of animal welfare.

Dr Hudson in 2001 worked on the FMD frontline, having to seal off affected farms and help slaughter teams cull farm’s entire herds of animals.

“I witnessed horrific scenes I never want to see again; it was a national emergency and like a war zone’’ Dr Hudson said.

“I had supervised one cull of a diary farm overnight and in the morning the farming couple offered me breakfast and the man told me that it was the first time ever, and he had been on the land for his entire life, that he couldn’t hear anything at all.

“It was complete silence and it just struck me then that the day before this farm was vibrant and full of life and now you couldn’t hear cows or the calves bellowing.’’

Dr Hudson who did part of his university studies at the University of Sydney, said Australia, over many years, had very strong biosecurity measures and the government’s introduction of foot baths, and stringent checking of materials shipped to Australia, was the right thing to do.

“You have to be very, very strict,’’ he said, adding that politicians should take the best advice from veterinarians and agricultural scientists about the most effective biosecurity controls.

He said the country also had to be ready to bring in the army at the first sign of foot and mouth because sealing off all movement – animals and people – from affected farms and those nearby as soon as possible was critical to controlling the spread of the disease.

In Britain, the 2001 outbreak spread from one pig farm in Northumberland to about 10,000 farms across most of the country, resulting in 10 million animals being slaughtered and distressing bonfires of burning carcasses blackening the skyline for eight months.

“If the outbreak spreads, you need serious logistics to control the animals and the people – don’t rule out calling an emergency straight away and bringing in the army,’’ Dr Hudson said.

“In Britain, the army was invaluable … in dealing with … things like providing water, lighting and diggers (to help dispose of animal carcasses).”

Backing up federal government plan to have international arrivals from FMD hotspot Indonesia walk through an antiseptic bath and for all footwear to be treated, the Australian Veterinary Emergency Plan (Ausvetplan) reveals that scientific studies have shown the virus can survive on rubber boots for up to 13 weeks, and up to 11 weeks on boot leather.

The virus can be spread through the air once it takes hold in a herd.

The Ausvetplan will introduce a minimum 72-hour national livestock standstill from a diagnosis or strong suspicion of FMD in Australia.

Under the current plan, animals on farms within 3km of an infected animal would be culled and there would be a “controlled” area of 10kms.

Cattle are considered the best indicator species for the presence of FMD because they are more susceptible to aerosol infection than sheep or pigs, although pigs excrete about 1000 to 3000 times more virus into the air than cattle.

Ausvetplan also warns any outbreak in Australia could be exacerbated if the disease got into the wild pig population.

Dr Hudson said he could “only recommend that Australia adopts the strongest vigilance, surveillance and biosecurity measures to stop it entering the country”.