WITH foot and mouth disease (FMD) currently only a stone’s throw away from Australian shores, threatening Australia’s livestock industry, the NSW Government is planning ahead in how to best prepare for an outbreak.
The NSW government received unanimous support for the development of a national, mandatory sheep and goat electronic (eID) system during a meeting of Australian agriculture ministers last week.
“Individual traceability for sheep and goats will be critical in the event of an emergency disease outbreak like FMD in Australia,” NSW Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders said.
“Today’s agreement is a major leap towards closing all gaps in our national biosecurity system.
“Recent detections of FMD fragments in Melbourne and Adelaide are a frightening reminder of the need to ramp up our biosecurity controls.”
Mr Saunders said NSW farmers had thrown their weight behind a national eID system during an emergency vote at their annual conference last week. A national framework will now urgently be developed by federal and state agricultural departments with industry input for consideration at the next meeting of agriculture ministers.
“My commitment to sheep and goat producers is that they will have their voices heard during all stages of the implementation and development of a national traceability system,” Ms Saunders said.
Last week, the government established Biosecurity Response Zones at international airports, strengthening and widening the powers of biosecurity officers to direct
passengers to use foot mats and other biosecurity control measures currently in place to help stop the spread of FMD.
Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said this comes after his department investigated what further control measures were available at Australia’s international airports.
“I had been concerned about some rare reports that some return travellers were not doing the right thing when returning from Indonesia,” Mr Watt said.
“We have wasted no time in getting on top of this issue and have been consistently ramping up measures at our airports and mail centres around the country.”
Mr Saunders welcomed this announcement from Mr Watt, although is still worried that more needs to be done to protect Australia’s livestock industry.
“NSW has been prosecuting the case for increased biosecurity measures like foot mats at international airports, and while the steps taken by the federal government are positive, there is definitely more that can be done to protect our shores,” Mr Saunders said.
“I am concerned to hear about travellers coming back from Indonesia who are not being stopped and checked for traces of the FMD virus, which is why I’ll continue to call for 100 per cent of people returning from hotspots like Bali to have their luggage inspected thoroughly.”
