Fears we are too short on livestock biosecurity officers, vets to face foot and mouth

The number of government livestock biosecurity officers - previously known as stock inspectors - across the north is well below what cattle industry leaders believe is ideal.

Labour shortages and government funding aside, there is understandably no wave of hands going up from qualified job seekers who would be left to shoulder the responsibility of informing producers their stock must be destroyed.

The Ausvetplan disease strategy manual for foot and mouth disease, which sets out the guidelines for Australia's response to an outbreak, says 'stamping out' will be the default policy initially, as it is the quickest method to reduce viral excretion on infected premises.

This will mean quarantining stations and destroying infected animals. It will have to be done humanely, as soon as possible after detection and on-site carcase disposal will require decontamination of heavy machinery, according to the manual.

An immediate national livestock standstill will also be put in place.

The Ausvetplan says vaccination would be part of the response, aimed at eradication, but would 'not be a substitute for movement controls and biosecurity measures.'

"Movement of infected animals is widely recognised as one of the most important routes of the spread from one premises to another," the plan says.

"However, under favourable climatic conditions, movement of airborne virus particles to other properties by wind can be an important factor.

"Marketing and production systems in Australia can result in the rapid dispersal of animals over wide areas. The ability to trace livestock movements and products is critically important to the early control of an outbreak. The movement patterns of sheep may be particularly important, because they can be infected without showing clinical signs.

"There would be significant flow-on losses to many rural and regional businesses that rely on livestock industry revenue. In addition, it is expected that there would be indirect effects on sectors such as tourism as a result of customer perceptions and the general downturn of the rural economy."

The Productivity Commission said the likely fall in agricultural exports would be large enough to affect the exchange rate. It has estimated the value of the dollar would fall by 2.5 per cent during the first year, and remain below pre-foot and mouth levels for nine years.

The Ausvetplan notes numerous other big social challenges: debates regarding the value and ethics of slaughtering large numbers of healthy livestock and perhaps wildlife; consumer misconceptions regarding the safety of product from vaccinated animals and environmental concerns about the burial or burning of carcasses and products.

Alongside producers, biosecurity officers and vets will be at the coalface of all that.

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Biosecurity officers are region-based and travel to properties to undertake inspections, treatment and certification for livestock movements.

The Northern Territory has six: one in Darwin, two in Katherine, two in Tennant Creek and one in Alice Springs.

Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association president David Connolly says at least 20 are needed.

Four veterinary officers are also based in the regions. They provide a free disease investigation service for reports of suspect notifiable diseases in livestock, including lumpy skin and foot and mouth.

A property with a suspect notifiable disease can be placed under quarantine by officers while the investigation is being undertaken.

The NT Government says more than 1500 property visits are undertaken annually to deliver biosecurity services, along with inspections of up to 300,000 head of livestock.

Biosecurity Queensland says it has in place a response-ready workforce as part of it's preparedness for emergency incursions.

That includes more than 50 animal biosecurity officers and veterinarians based throughout the state and, in addition, an Emergency Response Preparedness Team and a biosecurity response IT platform. It has also provided biosecurity emergency response training to private veterinarians.

"In an FMD outbreak, a large number of veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals, both government and private, would be required to support the response," a Biosecurity Queensland spokesperson said.

"Queensland implemented a foot and mouth disease preparedness program in 2014. This work is being further expanded based on the current threat in Indonesia."

In WA, there is a road checkpoint on the NT border on Victoria Highway. All livestock entering WA are directed to the quarantine stockyard at Kununurra for inspection and certification.

WA has two senior livestock quarantine inspectors in Kununurra, one in Broome and a veterinary officer in both those locations.

WA's Department of Primary Industries says government vets actively engage with private vets and stock owners to raise awareness of emergency animal diseases, including food and mouth and lumpy skin disease.

WA also has three biosecurity inspectors and four general inspectors under the Animal Welfare Act.

The state also has a Northern Biosecurity Surveillance Strategy in place, which captures information from multiple sources to assist in the detection of exotic diseases.

Still, livestock industry leaders say these on-the-ground services will be grossly undermanned in the event of a foot and mouth outbreak, when an officer could be required on hundreds of properties within a very short time.

Both a directive to cull, and a livestock standstill - the two critical steps in Australia's response plan - would be impossible to implement under the current arrangements, they say.