Foot and mouth disease threatens Australian livestock industry

Australian authorities are under increasing pressure to put harsher measures in place to stop foot and mouth disease entering from Bali. See the latest updates.

Australian authorities are under increasing pressure to put harsher measures in place to stop foot and mouth disease entering from Bali.

While extra biosecurity protocols were introduced last week — after the devastating disease was detected on the popular Indonesian holiday island frequented by tens of thousands of Australian each month — key industry figures say they do not go far enough to protect Australia’s multi-billion dollar livestock industry.

FMD was first detected in Indonesia in late April. Experts say its spread to Bali means there is a real threat it could make its way to Australian on the shoes or clothes of returning holidaymakers.

There are also fears an outbreak of FMD could plunge Australia into a recession.

Calls for tougher biosecurity come as the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is ridiculed for its reasoning to not install sterilising footbaths in airports for returning travellers because children could fall into them.

In a statement to The Weekly Times, a DAFF spokesman said there was an occupational health and safety risk with footbaths as “children (could) trip or fall into the bath”.

The spokesman also said passengers arriving from Bali were “often not wearing enclosed footwear and cannot be exposed to (an antiseptic) on bare skin if they are wearing flip flops or sandals, or soaking sandshoes or socks”.

NSW Farmers president James Jackson said the rationale behind the failure to install footbaths should mean that detector dogs be banned because a child could get bitten or coffee not sold because a child could get scalded.

“If we get FMD in Australia it will cost us $80 billion — more than the JobKeeper program and send us hurtling towards recession,” Mr Jackson said.

“We cannot rely on treatment with FMD – prevention is the only way to keep us safe.”

Already farmers are acting on the threat, with wool growers lining up to sell their bales over fears international trade will shut down should FMD is found in Australia.

This week, a huge offering of 61,000 bales of wool was rostered for sale which Fox and Lillie brokerage manager Eamon Timms said reflected growers’ intent.

“No doubt the fact that so much wool was allocated to sale for this week would have been somewhat caused by concerns over getting wool sold quickly due to FMD,” Mr Timms said.

“The news that it has moved from other islands … to Bali has many on edge.

“While the Australian government has stepped things up somewhat at airports, it is certainly short of passenger footbaths that many see as a crucial line of defence against this incredibly dangerous scenario for all of Australia.”

The meat industry is similarly worried with major processor Greenham — which has abattoirs in Victoria and Tasmania — in discussions with authorities over the FMD threat.

Livestock veteran and Greenham senior group livestock manager Graeme Pretty said the current risk of FMD coming into Australia was “worst threat I have ever seen”.

“We dealt with the threat of anthrax in northern Victoria and that was scary enough but the risk of FMD coming into Australia now is frightening,” Mr Pretty said.

“I speak to a lot of producers every day and the first thing they always ask me about is prices, but the second now is always FMD – it’s worrying the man on the ground and everyone I speak to is extremely concerned.”

Mr Pretty said foot baths should be installed immediately in airports while returning travellers from Bali must be made to wear enclosed shoes.

“In an export abattoir, we all gown up, put on hair nets and clover our clothes and then put on rubber boots and walk through a foot bath and wash our boots,” Mr Pretty said.

“My personal view is that we should be pulling out all stops and doing whatever it takes to stop FMD getting in here.”

The short flight time from Western Australia to Bali has that state’s producers on high alert and an FMD workshop next week already has more than 100 registrations.

WA Livestock Mt Barker zone president David Slade said the fallout from any FMD outbreak in Australia would be much worse than in the UK during the early 2000s given Australia’s heavy reliance on exports.

He said he had spoken to farmers with mixed enterprises in WA who had already sold their stock to concentrate totally on cropping, while a beef producer had also asked him whether he should just “sell everything”.

Mr Slade said the Federal Government was not taking the FMD threat seriously.

“If we get FMD in Australia, we are certainly heading for a recession and that’s perhaps when city people will finally understand,” Mr Slade said.

“If it gets into Australia, it is likely we would never get rid of it and we are hearing here that despite the so-called increase in biosecurity at airports, there are people getting in that are simply not being checked.”

Federal Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt, National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson and agriculture officials will travel to Jakarta today to discuss the threat.

“My department and I will implement any practical measures that will make a difference, to reduce the risk of FMD reaching our shores,” Senator Watt said.

“The Government takes the threat of FMD extremely seriously because the risk it poses to Australian livestock is significant.”

JULY 12: FARMERS TAKE TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Farmers are hoping social media will bring the issue of foot and mouth disease in Bali and the threat it poses to Australia to a boarder audience.

Holbrook-based sheep enterprise Lambpro’s posted on Facebook last week with a picture of a pair of thongs asking people to “enjoy the cocktails but wash your shoes when you return” from Bali.

The post has been shared more than 7500 times and has reached hundreds of thousands of people.

Author Tom Bull said it showed the potential of social media to spread the word.

“Don’t discount what individual farmers can do to raise awareness of travelling back from Bali,” Mr Bull said.

“A small post we did, and expected nothing, saw nearly 700,000 reached and more than 7500 shares … do your bit.”

Beef breeder Marg Killalea from Upper Wantagong, NSW, was another producer to take to social media, describing the risk as “a mammoth worst-case disaster in waiting while we have a new (agriculture) minister on training wheels”.

“I say there should be a much stronger response of action by the government, and if FMD infection risk is high via footwear, all travellers returning from Indonesia should have their footwear destroyed on re-entry to Australia,” Ms Killalea wrote.

“This would be a small cost to the Australian government and may form part of a more effective short-term fix.”

There have also been plenty of farmers taking to Twitter in video messages telling of their fears of an FMD outbreak and the impacts it would have on their operation.

Prominent agricultural leader Catherine Marriott has used a video message to plead with tourists to leave their clothes and shoes in Bali while others are posting graphic photos of burning carcasses of animals destroyed in the United Kingdom’s FMD outbreak in the hope it may trigger people to be vigilant when returning from Bali.

A passionate call for all Australians travelling to Indonesia. Please share with your urban friends & please be careful when bringing things back. @NationalFarmers@abcnews@JaneCaro@TurnbullMalcolm@Lisa_Wilkinson#agchatozpic.twitter.com/mpTVuqBLjX

— Catherine Marriott (@roseycatherine) July 9, 2022

How many farmers/saleyards are looking out for signs and symptoms of #FMD do you know what to look for? 🤔
It's time critical to contain and outbreak.

— 🔥🕯Vivien Thomson AFSM (@VivThomson) July 10, 2022

JULY 9: FARMERS SLAM FAILURE TO INSTALL FOOT BATHS AT AIRPORTS

NSW Farmers president James Jackson has slammed the “wishy-washy” government failure to put sterilising foot baths in place at airports to stop foot and mouth disease entering Australia from Bali.

It comes as the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry yesterday said foot baths would not be used at airports as children could fall into them, among a host of other reasons.

There are growing fears the devastating disease could be brought into Australia from the popular holiday destination after FMD was detected in Bali in the past week.

Mr Jackson said the failure to implement foot baths showed the government wasn’t taking the threat from FMD seriously.

“The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry says they can’t have antiseptic foot baths at airports because a child might fall in them,” Mr Jackson said.

“Well by that rationale they should get rid of detector dogs in case a child gets bitten, or stop selling coffee in case a child gets scalded.

“It appears to me that everyone but the department is taking this seriously, and it’s time they got on with the job of keeping Australia safe from FMD.”

“If we get FMD in Australia it will cost us $80 billion – more than the JobKeeper program – and send us hurtling towards recession.

“A little inconvenience at the airport to prevent such a huge threat to our economy and our farming sector is entirely sensible, and it’s important people realise the gravity of the situation.

“We cannot rely on treatment with FMD – prevention is the only way to keep us safe.”

JULY 8: WHY STERILISING FOOT BATHS WON’T BE USED AT AIRPORTS

Sterilising foot baths are not being used at airports as a way to stop foot and mouth disease entering Australia from Bali by tourists because children could fall in them and the process would cause congestion in the terminals.

Farm leaders have been calling for foot baths to be installed at airports amid growing fears the devastating disease could be brought into Australia from the popular holiday destination.

It comes as FMD was detected in Bali in the past week.

But the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said there were also concerns that tourists would not be wearing enclosed footwear when returning from the holiday destination which meant they could not walk through the foot baths.

These are some of a host of reasons given by the Department given to The Weekly Times over why antiseptic foot baths have not been put in place to decrease the risk of foot and mouth disease entering Australia.

A DAFF spokesman said foot baths used to control diseases commonly used the chemical Virkon, which can cause skin, eye and respiratory tract irritation.

“Passengers arriving from Bali often are not wearing enclosed footwear and cannot be exposed to a chemical such as Virkon on bare skin, if they are wearing thongs, flip-flops, sandals, or soaking sandshoes and socks,” the spokesman said.

“Foot baths to be effective usually need to be deep enough to cover the foot, organic material such as manure and soil should be cleaned from footwear first and foot baths need to be regularly replenished when they become contaminated with organic material.”

The spokesman said there was also an occupational and workplace risk of trip hazard, having children trip or fall into the bath when placing the baths in busy international air terminals.

“Monitoring compliance with use of the foot bath may require supervising biosecurity officers which has resource implications and adds to congestion for arriving passengers,” the spokesman said.

JULY 7: FARM LEADER SPEAKS OUT

Frustrated farm leaders are furious that a simple measure of antiseptic foot baths is not being installed immediately in airports to prevent tourists bringing foot and mouth disease back from Bali.

Victorian Farmers Federation livestock group president Steve Harrison said the announcement by the Federal Government to step-up biosecurity measures did not go nearly far enough.

“Why are we being treated like second class citizens? This is a real and present threat to Australia as a whole,” Mr Harrison told The Weekly Times.

“The most cost effective way to control FMD is not to get it – surely making people walk through a foot bath is not too much to ask.”

Mr Harrison said the FMD threat should be “headlines everywhere”.

“They talk about a $80-$100 billion cost but the flow-on implications would be so much bigger for all of Australia,” Mr Harrison said.

“The measures announced yesterday are a start but that’s what it is – a start and we need much, much more to protect our country’s livestock”.

The threat is being taken so seriously in Western Australia that the industry is holding workshops, going into details over how to move or selling stock in the event of a FMD outbreak.

JULY 6: BIOSECURITY BOOST

The Federal Government has stepped up its efforts to keep the devastating foot and mouth disease out of Australia amid growing fears it could arrive from the Indonesian holiday island of Bali.

The Government today said new measures – including biosecurity detector dogs to be stationed in Darwin and Cairns airports, additional signage and distribution of flyers at major airports and biosecurity officers boarding arriving flights from Indonesia – would be immediately imposed “to protect Australia’s livestock from this threat”.

FMD was detected in Bali — frequented by tens of thousands of Australians each month – during the past week. It first surfaced in Indonesia in late April and there were fears that should it spread to Bali, it could then make its way to Australia on the shoes or clothing of tourists.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said FMD presented a “very serious threat” to Australia’s billion-dollar livestock industry and “we are taking firm action”.

“Australian biosecurity – and particularly the threat posed by FMD – is a top priority, and high-level discussions have been occurring on an ongoing basis between Australian and Indonesian authorities, as well as with the local industry,” Senator Watt said in a statement.

He said Indonesia would have the support of the Federal Government in responding to its FMD outbreak, adding there were well-established plans in place should FMD be detected in Australia, including an FMD vaccine bank.

The nation’s peak farming body said this week’s news of FMD in Bali “has sent a shiver up the spine of Australian farmers”.

Nationals leader and opposition agriculture spokesman David Littleproud said the Government wasn’t taking “the risk of foot-and-mouth disease seriously enough”.

“We need more than just ads at airports,” Mr Littleproud said. “Feet dips with disinfectant for flights from Indonesia should start now. We need to screen everyone that comes back from Bali. This is serious and the future of our ag industries depends on it.”

This is Poppy, our pet sheep. Explain to me how I tell our kids poppy and all the other sheep and cattle here on the farm would be slaughtered if #FMD comes into Australia and then into our region. Stories like this could shake our metro cousins into caring about this huge risk pic.twitter.com/OuGWbKHbO9

— Fiona Myers (@FionaMyers2640) July 5, 2022

JULY 6: AG’S BIGGEST FIGHT

Australia’s agriculture sector is under a multi-pronged attack from potentially devastating pests and diseases amid growing fears of an under-resourced and underprepared biosecurity system.

Authorities are currently countering a trifecta of threats — varroa mite in bees and foot and mouth disease and lumpy skin disease in livestock — that have the potential to collectively wipe billions of dollars from the industry’s bottom line.

The biggest fears are around Foot and Mouth Disease, which has been detected in the past week on the Indonesian tourist resort island of Bali — frequented by tens of thousands of Australians each month. FMD was first detected in Indonesia in late April and there were fears that, should it spread to Bali, it could then make its way to Australia on the shoes or clothing of tourists.

A veterinarian administers a vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease to a cow. Picture: ANDI / AFP

The nation’s peak farming body said this week’s news of FMD in Bali “has sent a shiver up the spine of Australian farmers”.

“The Government must undertake rapid risk analysis to ensure our prevention measures are equal to this new level of risk,” National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson said.

In NSW, a recent incursion of varroa mite, which has the potential to decimate Australia’s bee population causing devastation to many industries including horticulture, has raised concerns among experts about a broader lack of biosecurity strength for Australian agriculture.

NSW Farmers president James Jackson said the fact that varroa mite had managed to get into Australia was “indicative of systemic failure of the (past) Federal Government on biosecurity”.

“The Federal Government has been asleep at the wheel on this one — (we have) been very concerned about biosecurity for 10 years,” Mr Jackson said.

“We need better x-ray facilities, we need better on-board surveillance, and we need better intelligence.”

Mr Jackson said he was hopeful the new Federal Government would step up and “put some rubber on the road on biosecurity”.

“The next piece of the equation is sustainable and proper funding for biosecurity,” he said.

“I’ve been telling David Littleproud (former Minister for Agriculture) for years that his biosecurity was under the money.”

More than 70 #NSWRFS members are assisting the NSW DPI with Varroa Mite operations in the Hunter. Volunteers and staff are supporting Incident Management roles and field operations. NSW RFS crews are helping volunteer beekeepers and authorised officers to test hives for Varroa. pic.twitter.com/c9abrxqgcM

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) July 6, 2022

The varroa detection has spooked the livestock industry which now fears Australia’s biosecurity system could fail to pick up FMD on tourists returning from Bali.

More than 60 cases were confirmed over the weekend in Bali, on the northcentral coast near Singaraja and northeast of Denpasar.

Former Australian veterinarian Dr Ross Ainsworth said FMD could be in the major tourist areas of Seminuak and Canggu “in a matter of days if it is not there already”.

Dr Ainsworth, who spent four decades as a veterinarian in Australia and now lives in Indonesia, said it was time to increase biosecurity out of Bali and into Australia.

He said while the current FMD outbreak had been confirmed over the weekend, it had “probably been on the island for at least two weeks prior” given the time it took to get test results back.

“All the infected areas are frequented by many tourists so the danger of transmission to Australia is much greater than before (the Bali outbreak),” Dr Ainsworth said.

Dr Ainsworth said Australia should be upping the ante with biosecurity and asking travellers returning from Bali to disinfect their shoes before boarding their flight home and when they arrived in Australia.

“Considering the magnitude of the impact of an outbreak of FMD to Australia and the dramatically increased risk presented by the current epidemic in Indonesia, I believe it would be appropriate to upgrade the biosecurity measures to match this increasing risk,” he said.

In his first major address as Agriculture Minister earlier this month, Murray Watt named labour shortages, biosecurity and input costs as his immediate priorities in the new role.

The Weekly Times contacted Senator Watt’s office over biosecurity concerns, but questions were referred to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

A DAFF spokesman said the department had safeguards in place “both offshore and onshore to manage the broad range of biosecurity threats”.

“Front line resources are targeted at the highest risk, and currently there is a strong focus on managing Indonesian flight risks,” the spokesman said.

“In response to the FMD outbreak in Indonesia, front line biosecurity officers are operating with increased vigilance across all flights arriving from Indonesia.

“This includes enhanced questioning of passengers in the baggage hall regarding FMD risk items they may be carrying.”

Wool Producers Australia Ed Storey said there needed to be strict protocols when visitors returned from Bali to help counter FMD.

“We know the huge volume of traffic means a great chance of someone coming back with something they shouldn’t,” Mr Storey said. “What we don’t’ want to hear is that these checks are not being done to the level they should be because of cost or staff – just get it done.

WoolProducers Australia president Ed Storey pictured on his property at Yass in NSW.

Lumpy Skin Disease is also on the horizon, and unlike FMD, can be airborne, keeping northern Australian cattle producers on high alert.

Meanwhile the bee industry is coming to terms with the incursion of the varroa mite.

Victorian Farmers Federation beekeeping branch president Peter Macdonald said beekeepers were “preparing for the worst”.

VFF horticulture president Nathan Free said his members were “very, very nervous” about the potential spread of the varroa mite as many depended on pollination services beekeepers provided.