Jakarta’s suspension of live cattle imports from four Australian facilities – after tests revealed several were carrying Lumpy Skin Disease – is understandable but cold comfort to producers that have tracked the rampant spread of both LSD and Foot and Mouth disease through Indonesia since March 2022 with dread.
The threat posed to one of Australia’s most valuable export industries was always going to be difficult to contain, despite the enforcement of heightened biosecurity measures to keep the contagious livestock diseases out of the country.
Both LSD and FMD have the potential to devastate Australia’s livestock export industry, though Lumpy Skin disease has always posed the more imminent threat given its ability to travel long distances via infected insects, animals, equipment and vessels.
Whether the cattle that Indonesian authorities say tested positive for LSD were infected in Australia, en route to Indonesia, or inside the Java feedlot where they were tested within a day or two of their arrival, is still to be determined.
But no matter the answer, odds are the LSD found in that livestock came from Indonesia.
Lumpy Skin Disease has now spread through cattle populations across the Indonesian islands of Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan, despite local efforts — and some Australian assistance — to try to control the outbreak.
Australian authorities have insisted its domestic cattle industry remains LSD-free while delicately avoiding any explicit suggestion that the livestock were infected inside Indonesia, though clearly believes that is the case.
No one has forgotten the disastrous consequences for the trade relationship of Canberra’s temporary ban on the export of live cattle to Indonesia in 2011 – least of all Jakarta which continues to look for ways to reduce its reliance on Australian cattle and beef.
It is Jakarta’s determination to diversify its suppliers that the country’s cattle industry leadership believes is responsible for the reintroduction of FMD into Indonesia last year through beef imports from Brazil and India.
Authorities have been working hard – with some success – since then to contain FMD.
But Indonesian Cattle and Buffalo Association president Robi Agustiar says small cattle holders, in particular, have been slow to vaccinate their stock against LSD, largely because of cost.
The Indonesian government is subsidising Foot and Mouth Disease vaccinations for the country’s five million-strong livestock, but farmers have had to bear the cost of inoculating cattle against LSD – a less harmful disease to humans and so perhaps a lower priority.
“The situation is very hard for small holder farmers because we have FMD and LSD and now we also have anthrax,” Mr Agustiar told The Australian.
“The LSD vaccination is really hard to find and even if you can find it, it’s a bit expensive.”
Mr Agustiar said there were “still many, many questions” surrounding the detection of LSD in imported Australian cattle and any response “must be backed by scientific evidence”.
In both countries more tests are now underway to pin down the location of infection.
Australia’s multi-billion dollar cattle industry, and a hard-won international trade reputation, depend on the results.
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