Foot and mouth disease: How Australia dealt with the 2001 UK outbreak

When foot and mouth disease threatened Australia two decades ago, federal officials acted swiftly. This is how they protected Aussie farms.

A biological crackdown was enforced by Australian authorities two decades ago when the nation’s agricultural sector was last shaken by foot and mouth disease.

With Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt visiting Jakarta this week to discuss the Balinese FMD situation, attention has turned to the last time Australia was confronted with an FMD scare abroad.

In February 2001, an outbreak of FMD was confirmed in the UK, with initial detections in Essex and Buckinghamshire.

February 2001: Livestock carcasses are incinerated in northern England, after foot and mouth disease was found on a farm earlier in the week. Picture: AP/Tom Buist

Cumbria in England’s far northwest was hardest hit by the epizootic – the animal equivalent of an epidemic – with nearly 900 cases.

British exports of cheese, meat and other animal products were banned for months by most countries – leading Tony Blair’s Labour Government to institute a financial rescue plan for the UK’s flailing farming sector.

March 2001: Quarantine officials scrub passengers footwear when entering Sydney from or via Europe after having their bags searched for any substance capable of carrying FMD. Photo: Andy Baker.

HOW DID AUSTRALIA RESPOND?

In the first fortnight of the outbreak, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) placed bans on a range of products – not just from the UK but also from parts of western Europe.

Travellers from the UK, Ireland and France were required to have their footwear disinfected upon arrival in Australia.

Returning travellers were initially asked whether they had visited any farms while visiting the UK or Europe. But heightened concerns in March 2001 led to travellers having their footwear disinfected upon arrival.

The new airport regulations led the Howard Government to raise the rate of departure tax from $30 to $38 to help cover AQIS costs.

March 2001: Meryl Stanton, director of Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, detailing restrictions made by Australia to protect it from FMD. Photo: Michael Jones.

AQIS director Meryl Stanton received criticism for an immediate ban on infant formula, which was reversed in 48 hours to allow for small amounts of the product to enter Australia.

“We clearly are not in the business of having hungry babies arrive in Australia not knowing where their next meal’s coming from,” she said in 2001.

“So it’s a practical measure. We believe the risk again is extremely minimal.”

Apart from infant formula, restrictions were placed on most animal products, not just food. Leather horse-related products, scoured wool, pet food and animal hair were also put on an AQIS blacklist.

Australia’s strict approach earned a swift rebuke from Brussels.

Then EU food and safety commissioner David Byrne threatened to take the matter to the World Trade Organisation.

Restrictions on British, French and Dutch goods were eased by the AQIS later in 2001 as the three countries brought the disease under control.

FMD’S WIDESPREAD REACH

Cherie Blair smiles as she leaves the tourist information shop in the Bronte Village in northern England. Picture: Dave Caulkin

The outbreak didn’t hit just British agriculture.

Major events including the Cheltenham Festival, one of the UK’s top horse racing carnivals, and the British Rally Championship were cancelled.

International tourism went into abeyance and even domestic travel slowed to the point Cherie Blair, the wife of the UK’s then Prime Minister Tony Blair, spearheaded a tourism campaign to get British holiday-makers back on the road.

February 2001: Jamie Bruce disinfects his boots before attending Treetop Nursery due to the foot and mouth disease outbreak. The nursery is in the middle of Willers Mill Wildlife Park in Shepreth, Cambridgeshire.

By the end of the 2001 calendar year, more than six million cattle and sheep were destroyed by UK authorities to eventually bring the disease under control.

Smaller outbreaks were also notched up in France and The Netherlands, with Dutch authorities destroying thousands of livestock there to curb the spread.

Indonesian president Suharto addresses parliament in Jakarta in the late 1980s.

OTHER FMD OUTBREAKS

Until the 2022 outbreak, Indonesia had been free from foot and mouth disease since 1986, when Suharto was in power in Jakarta.

Throughout the 1980s, Australia provided financial and on-the-ground support alongside Indonesian administrators to contain any outbreaks.

The FMD-free status was recognised internationally by the World Organisation for Animal Health in 1990.

Other nations to be hit by FMD include South Africa earlier this year.

More than 50 cases were detected in March and April in Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, North West and Gauteng.

Several countries, including neighbouring Mozambique, instituted trade restrictions, although concern in Australia was less pronounced compared to the latest detection in Indonesia.