Page 4 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Feral pigs are problematic foot and mouth disease vectors, if it was to reach Australia.
Tyranny of distance not so bad
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FOLLOWING the July 5 confirmation by Indone- sian authorities of an out- break of foot and mouth disease in Bali, some panic has emerged Down Under – especially and unsurprisingly among livestock producers.
pant, France has shown that the disease can be controlled, with Australia easing bans on their an- imal and meat products, acknowledging their con- tainment of FMD to only two properties.
Cant
Comment
by BRENDON CANT
A contagious viral dis- ease of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs with severe con- sequences for animal health and trade, FMD is – at least for now, as at July 21 – not in Australia.
Matters, which I wrote on behalf of Renata Paliskis- Bessell the then meat pro- gram manager with Agri- culture Western Australia.
permitted to have had con- tact with another pig farm or lairage within 48 hours.
This illustrates the re- wards that have come to France for their diligence in following guidelines for protection against out- break – diligence practiced by Australian Quarantine and Inspection Services, which invited the media to witness them inspecting every sea container coming into port for signs of contamination.
The FMD fear flurry here reminded me of the time 21 years ago when an FMD outbreak in the United Kingdom caused widespread global panic and the mass extermina- tion of thousands of ani- mals in what was eventu- ally a successful cessation of the disease.
Headlined ‘Tyranny of distance not so bad after all’,Ithoughtitworthwhile revisiting it now, as it seems the proximity of Bali to Australia and its popularity with Aussie travellers is what is fanning legitimate FMD fears here.
Such stringent measures would seem to provide ironclad protection, but they could also seem te- dious to less responsible growers and the chains that lock out disease are only as strong as their weakest link.
This prompted Western Australian Farmers Fed- eration president Colin Nicholl to say he was very happy with current quarantine protocol and it should give us all confi- dence in livestock health.
FMD landing in Aus- tralia from Bali could cost our economy a staggering $80 billion.
So, this is what I had to say with Renata’s approval back in 2001.
A report released in early March claims to have iden- tified the source of the European FMD epidemic, identifying a piggery in Newcastle, England, which in December just escaped being prosecuted by the RSPCA.
But it should be a cau- tious confidence – one measured by the cost should our systems fail – and sensitive to the hard- ships faced by those less fortunate farmers in Eu- rope.
ME
Back in March 2001, I covered FMD in my reg- ular monthly column Meat
Europe’s debilitating struggle with foot and mouth disease has opened avenues for Western Australian producers, but hopefully it has also opened a few eyes to the profound dangers of neg- ligent animal husbandry.
There is a saying coined by Christians to prevent them from becoming too assured and complacent – ‘There, but for the grace of God, go I’.
From there, the tangled lines of livestock move- ment carried the dis- ease across the English Channel, with the report noting the FMD outbreak gave insight into how iso- lated breakdowns in infec- tion control could mush- room into full-blown epi- demics.
Back to present day – should foot and mouth dis- ease land in Australia, the estimated direct economic impact widely quoted is an extraordinary $80 billion currently.
Religious or not, it is a timely reminder to pro- ducers that they are not immune to the disaster that has decimated European herds.
Britain now has 337 con- firmed cases of FMD at an estimated cost of nine billion pounds – $24 bil- lion Australian – through lost earnings, higher food prices and tourism down- turn.
This may well be a con- servative estimate given the scale of farming in this country, the massive em- ployment that hinges on value adding, transporta- tion and maintaining rural communities, plus likely immediate lockouts of our meat exports by overseas customers.
The problem may be half a world away, but the world is getting smaller and 50 countries have had the dis- ease in recent years.
But while FMD is ram-
So, while Australia is free from FMD, markets are never free from the threat of disease.
Malaysian pig producers who once supplied the lu- crative Singaporean market would attest to the unremit- ting threat of disease.
The nipah virus ruined their export industry – in the process providing Australian producers an opportunity they are still savouring but fervently guarding.
One source of foot and mouth disease could be contaminated meat products being irresponsibly, carelessly and illegally imported into Australia from Indonesia.
Page 4 – Australian Pork Newspaper, August 2022
Visitors to piggeries should wear clean over- alls and clean-scrubbed disinfected rubber boots as a minimum standard of entry, while not being
The author’s Meat Matters column covered foot and mouth disease in March 2001.
Strict protocols have al- lowed the Western Aus- tralian pig industry to re- main clear of such viruses.
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