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Australia is free of Foot and Mouth Disease  (FMD) and has been for a long time.  It is a crippling blistering disease of livestock, which spreads faster and more effectively than almost anything else.  If it comes here the party is over, it would cost the nation its shirt by lopping 5% off GDP more or less overnight and for a very long time.

And it is a serious threat - not the only one, but a serious one - that could become a reality at any time and people on this list could help stop it by promoting the sensible idea that no one must bring meat, hair, hide, or  any other animal product to Australia when they travel overseas.

The outbreak that meant slaughtering a major proportion of all the livestock in Britain started with the importation of illegal meat probably from Korea, to a city area.   It probably appeared completely innocuous to the individual who did it, but it was not innocuous.  There is no way to tell by looking at the animal material whether it will carry FMD or some other nasty disease.  The only way to be sure is not to bring in meat or other animal products when travelling.

Below my signature substitute thingy is an article from today's SMH.  It describes the usual problems about preparedness.  The NSW Auditor General says there are to few vets among other problems.  Vets were hated in the NSW Department a few years ago, which was run by vets many years ago, but they are essential to an adequate response to any FMD outbreak.  I notice that is no division of vets in the latest structure of the NSW Department, although one of the Executive Directors, Helen Scott-Orr, trained as a vet.  It seems likely that the NSW Auditor General was referring to vets more generally not just those in Government service.

If you need more background on the disease, just do a search on the name of the disease - the destruction you will see or have described to you is reminiscent of the films about the end civilisation.... and please read the article below.  It starts with a vet who thought he was looking at the end of the world as he knew it - such people should be congratulated for being careful.

Ausvetplan, which is referred to in the article, is found here:

http://www.aahc.com.au/ausvetplan/

 Toby Fiander

SMH Article
On May 7 at Camden saleyards in south-west Sydney, veterinarian Keith Hart thought the nightmare had begun.
 

On sale that Tuesday morning was a group of lame pigs, one of which had a lesion on its snout.

"I felt sick," Dr Hart said.

It turned out that the pigs were suffering from a long truck journey and not what he had feared most - foot-and-mouth disease - but these squealing, smelly animals are hot favourites to spark Australia's greatest mobilisation of resources outside war.

The country has not had an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease since 1872, but if agriculture's most disastrous scourge slips through the defences of Fortress Australia it could lop at least $2 billion off the gross domestic product, according to Productivity Commission research. At its worst, it would be $13 billion.

Last year, Britain - which had not suffered an outbreak of foot-and-mouth since 1967 - had to slaughter millions of animals to stamp out an epidemic that began with pigs.

As a direct result of the British experience, Australia's blueprint for fighting an outbreak, Ausvetplan, will be tested next week. More than 1000 people from government, the military and industry will take part in the first national foot-and-mouth epidemic simulation.

The five-day Exercise Minotaur will test the country's ability to cope with something close to a worst-case scenario.

The mainly desk-based operation will ask basic questions such as: Are there enough people in the laboratories to analyse samples? If there is an outbreak in the south-east, can cattle still be exported from the Northern Territory? Does everyone know the computer file-naming convention?

The same strain of the British disease, first identified in India in 1990, has in recent years reached 28 countries, including Japan (foot-and-mouth free since 1908) and South Korea (1934).

Much of Australia is not at high risk because foot-and-mouth is at its most virulent in damp, cool environments. But it has struck in Malaysia, and could easily take hold in most of NSW.

Ausvetplan says the first case would probably be in pigs, infected through contaminated meat illegally brought into the country.

"If the infected pigs were wild or belonged to a swill feeder unconcerned about or reluctant to report sick animals, the initial outbreak could well go unnoticed and uncontrolled," it says.

A federal parliamentary committee examining Australia's quarantine standards was stunned recently to hear British estimates that up to 100 kilograms of meat have been illegally carried in on international flights.

In Australia, one man has already been fined a record $8650 this year for bringing in nearly seven kilograms. Many people entering the country have what Animal Health Australia calls a "cultural propensity to carry high-risk food".

In Sydney, there have been prosecutions for illegal swill feeding and attempts to eliminate the city's feral pig population have been thwarted by pig-hunters restocking breeding colonies.

The Australian Veterinary Association is so concerned it wants a veterinary reserve, similar to the army's, that could rapidly respond to any foot-and-mouth outbreak.

As the world's biggest exporter of beef, second-biggest exporter of lamb and mutton, and third-biggest exporter of dairy products, the disease would be a trade disaster for Australia.

Exports of these products total about $10 billion a year - 6 per cent of total exports - and all would be affected by long bans.

While Britain's response last year was a debacle - one report said the army should have been mobilised in the first week - proper action can quickly bring things under control.

A report by the NSW Auditor-General released in May said the state was poorly prepared for an outbreak, identifying "significant" problems in areas such as the number of vets and surveillance of swill feeding.

At the federal level, an audit report released last year found that the vast majority of dangerous material coming in through mail or air passengers was passing Australia's borders undetected.

But in the wake of the British outbreak, governments have been working feverishly to improve detection in what is now an international trend.

The Howard Government in last year's Budget allocated $596 million over four years to quarantine and customs controls, with the aim of achieving 100 per cent interception.

Early last year less than 5 per cent of international mail was checked. But Australia Post says every item is now covered by two sniffer dogs and an x-ray, turning up the likes of elephant dung and monkey eyeballs.

At the state level, NSW Agriculture has created a first-response team of about 100 people from government and industry which could be deployed within 24 hours to control an outbreak.

In March, governments and livestock industries struck a world-first agreement to share the cost of fighting any disease outbreaks.

It guarantees that there will be no quibbling over the size of the bill and who should pay it, and therefore no delay in tackling an outbreak.

The agreement also provides an economic incentive for farmers to report outbreaks, knowing that they will be paid for any animals destroyed.

The events at Camden were a first for Dr Hart in his 28-year-career as a district veterinarian, and it proved to be a textbook response.

The movement of all stock was halted while the pigs and the property they came from were examined. By lunchtime everyone was on their way.

Geoff Mills, a Moss Vale Rural Lands Protection Board ranger who attends every sale day at Camden, made the call to Dr Hart about the pigs.

Mr Mills was one of 160 Australians who went to Britain last year to help with its foot-and-mouth outbreak.

The apocalyptic images of animals burning on huge pyres have left him on high alert.

"It's something I'll never forget," he said. "It broke my heart. I'd rather face the sack for doing the wrong thing than be too scared to act."

[ends]

I am way too far out of touch with vet science these days to be dogmatic but from a dimming memory the biggest problem with this disease is a politico-economic one not a veterinary one. The disease carries a lot of "baggage" from the past and the fear of it seems to have more to do with the effects on trade than the real health effects on the animals themselves.

This virus cause considerable morbidity more than outright death and most animals will recover especially with modern husbandry, I think it is time to look at the likelihood of World wide eradication and whether or not this is possible. If eradication is unlikely then we should adopt a vaccination strategy and the economic alarm will become more rational and save not only massive and probably unnecessary destruction of animals but huge economic losses. A vaccination strategy might even give us the opportunity to select for resistance to the disease.
 

Toby Fiander answered:

I think the problem with FMD is certainly economic, but it is partly to do with perceptions, too - perception not just or potential customers but of the graziers and piggery owners, too.

There are countries in which FMD is endemic, particularly in Africa.  Indeed, at first some people speculated that the FMD outbreak in Britain was carried on the wind from Africa, whereas later it was determined that the likely cause was the illegal importation of meat from (I think) Korea, where it is endemic.

Part of the problem with FMD is not just the economic loss, it is that it can spread so far so fast particularly in favourable weather conditions.  A small country can be seriously affect by an outbreak without even confirming its first few cases, because there is such rapid spread.  In Australia where there is limited experience with outbreaks of this kind, it would be especially difficult.

There is also a high mortality rate among young animals.  In addition, for anyone who keeps animals, it is heartbreaking to see them suffer by being unable to eat properly and to be so lame and shooting and burning a significant proportion of them would seem like an entirely appropriate thing to do.

It may be that FMD carries some baggage as a result of its history, but, even today, I understand that it has the appearance of a myth-like curse.  Superimpose the drastic human intervention that is implemented to try and get some control and ... well, it is not a good look.

A vet acquaintance, who has worked in Africa, said to me during the UK outbreak that there does not appear to have been much selection for resistance in places where FMD is endemic, but it was after the second beer as I recall, so it may be less than authoritative.

In any case, while it might eventually prove to be something that was overcome to a greater or lesser extent, the best strategy is not to have to try, because for a long time afterwards, Australia would miss the $13billion out of its export income.  Exactly what this would mean if difficult to say in advance (no R&D funding for economics?).  But it might mean and entirely different approach to importing, too, including being unable to get hold of some goods some of the time.  Computers are one of the things that spring to mind as I type.

Anyway, by far the best option is not to have to a disease appear here that is probably preventable and being careful about what is imported is the important point.