WESTERN Australia will retain regulatory controls for bovine Johne’s disease (BJD) despite a national shift to on-property management and a risk-assessment principal.
It will, however, embark on a surveillance and cattle testing program, which will either vindicate the regulated approach or undercover a background infection rate that warrants a different approach.
The preference for border controls has been met with disappointment from some Eastern States seedstock producers who believe it effectively means a potential market has been cut out.
Big changes were introduced in most states and territories from July last year that saw zones and quarantining abolished.
The new national approach made individual properties the point of control, cutting out the process of property lock-ups and forward traces which had caused huge financial losses to producers.
WA, however, is believed to have a negligible BJD prevalence and its producers believe the natural barrier of distance should be taken advantage of.
With the memory of the pain caused by an incursion from Queensland cattle in 2012 still strong, WA immediately put in place interim border controls after last July’s changes and formed an advisory committee to consult with industry and conduct an economic evaluation.
It was this committee’s recommendation to maintain the regulated approach.
Steve Meerwald, chairperson of the Cattle Industry Funding Scheme Management Committee, the producer levy-funded body responsible for biosecurity issues in WA, said the economic evaluation actually did not make a strong case either way.
Rather, it was response from industry that was key in the decision to take the regulatory path.
For individual producers, BJD could be catastrophic and from an animal welfare perspective it also warranted controlling, he said.
Accessing potential BJD sensitive markets is another reason WA producers went down this path.
“A deregulated environment can never be turned back,” Mr Meerwald said.
“However, we can deregulate in the future if there is a major detection that requires a re-think on our policy or the industry decides the cost of regulation and a formal surveillance program outweighs the benefits.”
BJD is a bacterial infection of the gut which causes an immune response resulting in wasting, diarrhoea, weight and production losses and ultimately death.
It is spread in faeces. Vaccination is available.
Former president of the Australian Registered Cattle Breeders Association Malcolm Foster, who was heavily involved in the review which led the majority of the nation towards a risk-assessment approach, said the decision would mean an added burden to trading with WA compared to other States.
In the long term it could mean WA producers were denied full access to high quality livestock, he said.
“It’s hard to understand given the extensive work carried out which pointed to the most effective point of control being the individual property,” he said.
WA authorities agree producers should never rely on regulatory disease controls to protect their farming business from the risk of BJD and should have suitable biosecurity measures in place to protect herds.
Tools are available from Animal Health Australia to help WA cattle producers manage their JD risk including J-BAS, Dairy Score, biosecurity checklists and the National Cattle Health Declaration, and can be found at www.animalhealthaustralia.com.au/jd-cattle-tools.
Mr Meerwald said the WA industry was very aware of the reliance of northern pastoral operations on genetics sourced out of Eastern States.
“If you are bringing in stud bulls from another area, the last thing you’d want are bulls that are carriers of BJD,” he said.
Everyone who has supplied bulls under the interim conditions will continue to provide bulls, he said.
“It depends on where stock are sourced from as to how people will be affected,” he said.
“If you are from an endemic area it is likely your cattle won’t be eligible.
“For Queensland, where most of the cattle coming to WA are sourced, controls involve a check test within 12 months of the export and cattle to be maintained only with others with no lower a BJD status.”
Mr Meerwald said if WA stayed regulated in the long term, the process would likely move towards only allowing cattle sourced from J-BAS 8 accredited properties, whereby a producer needs two clear sample tests two years apart.