ONCE again climate features as the wildcard for agriculture, this time as the relatively uncharted element in an already full house of biosecurity risks.
Speaking at the NSW Farm Writers panel discussion ‘Biosecurity: National Strategies and International Challenges’, Rennylea Pastoral Company director Lucinda Corrigan, who was formerly a Meat and Livestock Australia director, said new altered weather patterns had changed the biosecurity challenged for her cattle enterprise, located in NSW between Albury and Holbrook.
“Climate change is a major factor for the spread of pests, weeds and disease, which have spread south from hotter areas,” Mrs Corrigan said.
An example is Theileria (a blood cell destroying parasite carried by cattle ticks) which has appeared in our region
“A virulent form of the disease appeared in the Murray Valley 10 years ago, and some people lost 10 per cent of their stock, calves and cows.”
She went on to list Fleabane and subtropical weeds which she said had spread into her district with changed rainfall patterns.
Separate to climate change, but equally concerning on the biosecurity front, Mrs Corrigan listed feral animals, and their biosecurity threats such as the tuberculosis carried by feral deer in New Zealand.
“Deer, pigs, goats and dogs have appeared in the landscape of southern NSW in the last 30 years and increased dramatically,” she said.
Another somewhat “provocative” biosecurity threat has emerged in what Mrs Corrigan called “no care farmers”.
She cited the emergence of “part-timers and those who, philosophically, follow holistic principles” as a particular problem.
“I have observed disease problems due to a lack of routine vaccinations,” she said.
Complex changes
Professor Tim Reeves, of University of Melbourne Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre, said climate change will bring an added degree of difficulty to the already onerous task of biosecurity.
“Climate change is really important when modelling likely incursions, and where and how they might spread,” said Prof. Reeves, who is also a Crawford Fund board member.
While some very good research is being done, climate change “brings a third element to the task”, he said.
“If we manage biosecurity with a steady as she goes, business as usual approach it is highly unlikely to be satisfactory in the coming years.”
The balance between summer and winter rainfall has changed across the lower half of the continent has been changed by rising ocean warmth and altered barometric pressures in a warming atmosphere, AEGIC said.
Prof. Reeve said extreme weather events caused by the changing climate could create risk, such as the spread of plants with high wind events, while changing rainfall patterns could alter the range of pests, bringing new biosecurity threats into particular regions.
“It will impact on the number and type of exotic pests and diseases that can survive and thrive in certain regions.
“For example, northern Victoria is no longer a winter dominate climate, but has uniform rain throughout the year.
“A shift of moisture conditions of that nature will change many things, including the ability of pest and diseases to encroach on new areas.”
A shift of moisture conditions of that nature will change many things, including the ability of pest and diseases to encroach on new areas
- Tim Reeves
Sharing the panel at the event with Mrs Corrigan was Australia’s inaugural Inspector-General of Biosecurity Dr Helen Scott-Orr, who is also coordinator of the NSW Crawford Fund and its training program, and Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research general manager of global programs Mellissa Wood.
Dr Scott-Orr said the focus of her role, to which she was appointed on a three year term in June last year, is teh federal Agriculture and Water Department’s performance of biosecurity functions.
She has four reviews of biosecurity control under way.
Dr Scott-Orr is reviewing incursions into Australia of pests and diseases over the past 10 years; hitchhikers and contaminants that have come in cargo which is not subject to quarantine regulations; invasive exotic mosquitoes; and the military’s application of biosecurity regulations for when its own forces return from overseas duty, as well as its regulation of overseas forces that travel to Australia.
She has added white spot prawn disease to her list, following the recent outbreak.
