AUSTRALIA'S top biosecurity veterinarians have been sent to Indonesia to help combat the spread of foot and mouth disease and lumpy skin and the wheels are turning at a hundred miles an hour at home to mitigate against what is being called the biggest threat our livestock industries have faced.
Australian chief veterinary officer Dr Mark Schipp and his deputy Dr Beth Cookson will this week meet with senior officials at Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture, along with the head of the Indonesian office of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
It's just one of an arsenal Australia is throwing at the threat, livestock industry veteran and current chair of the Red Meat Advisory Council John McKillop said.
Speaking at the Rural Press Club of Queensland's May lunch in Brisbane on Friday, Mr McKillop, who is also CEO of Hancock Agriculture and S. Kidman & Co, said the way export protocols were written would mean that overnight Australia would lose 65 per cent of its boxed beef trade should there be just one case of LSD here.
The instant market suspensions would go back 72 days - 2.5 times the incubation period - which would mean meat on the wharf in America or Japan that would have to be destroyed.
Nearly all our live trade business - at least 93pc - and exports of rendered products would also shut down.
"The impact of that would be phenomenal on Australia," Mr McKillop said.
LSD will hit bos Taurus breeds, and the dairy industry, even harder than bos Indicus cattle in the north. It will take no time to wreak havoc on Australian agriculture.
Mr McKillop said industry leaders and biosecurity experts were more concerned about LSD than FMD because it is spread by insects.
"That means one good wind storm and it's in Papua New Guinea and just one more and it is here," he said.
Official estimates on the probability of LSD reaching Australia have now jumped from 8pc two months ago to 28pc.
"The experts are telling us in the next 12 months it's unlikely but in the next 36 months it's probable," Mr McKillop said.
That's how long we have to line up our ducks to mitigate the impacts.
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What is being done
The vaccines available for LSD across the globe won't suit Australia's industry. They come with the risk of bluetongue and FMD and in essence 'we don't know what we're getting in those vaccines,' Mr McKillop said.
On top of that, vaccinating Australian animals with these products means we are immediately deemed to have the disease in terms of trade protocols. The same is the case for FMD.
The live LSD virus is about to be brought into Australia in order for scientists at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness at Geelong, in Victoria, to work on developing our own vaccine. Ideally, it will be of the new-generation mRNA elk, borne out of COVID science, which won't involve a live virus.
However, in reality it's still not clear if that will be possible - or how long it will take.
At the same time, Australia was frantically renegotiating trade protocols in an attempt to have LSD removed as a disease that would shut down markets.
When these protocols were written, LSD wasn't really a serious threat to Australia so it was easily conceded as a technical condition of trade.
Further, Australia is investing heavily in overseas in-country support - from sending veterinarians to assisting with the roll-out of vaccinations and recording so we can keep track of the disease spread.
Given the average herd size in Indonesia is two head, it's a far different scenario from rolling out vaccinations in Australia.
FMD, meanwhile, is now in four Indonesian Islands. It can be carried on contaminated clothing and soil.
Mr McKillop said every square inch of luggage on people arriving from Indonesia was being checked at Australian borders.
But he could not see the Australian Government moving into the area of banning travel to Bali, as has been the call from some in the Australian industry.
Australia has a bank, in the United Kingdom, of the raw material needed to manufacture FMD vaccines. It's a four-month process to facilitate but Mr McKillop said it was time to get that happening, regardless of cost.
There is not much more producers on the ground in Australia can do other than have comprehensive biosecurity plans in place, know the symptoms of both diseases like the back of their hands and be constantly vigilant.
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