By Lachlan Ellis<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve probably heard how devastating foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) would be to Aussie agriculture if it arrived on our shores, but a local farmer says we all have a part to play in containing the illness.<\/p>\n
FMD affects cloven-hoofed animals such as sheep, cows, and pigs, and can also be carried on people\u2019s clothing and footwear. While it doesn\u2019t threaten human health, it has a significant effect on animal welfare and production.<\/p>\n
An FMD outbreak was reported in Indonesian cattle in May, raising concerns that a similar outbreak could occur here \u2013 crippling the livestock industry and potentially costing the Australian economy $80 billion over 10 years.<\/p>\n
Sanitising foot mats have been rolled out at airports to kill any virus fragments on travellers\u2019 shoes, but not everyone is convinced that\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n
Fiskville sheep farmer and Vice President of the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) Livestock Group, Scott Young, conceded that the industry was \u201cat the mercy of our borders\u201d, but urged anyone travelling from overseas to take steps to limit transmission of FMD.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to keep FMD out of Australia for the last hundred years, so hopefully if we do the right things, and travellers do the right things and don\u2019t bring in the wrong things, we can keep it out. We produce beautiful food in this country\u2026don\u2019t bring food back when you\u2019re coming from overseas,\u201d Mr Young told the Moorabool News.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd on a local level as farmers, we can make sure we\u2019ve got our biosecurity register on our farms, we check vehicles and make sure people\u2019s boots are clean, know where they\u2019ve come from, and keep a register of who\u2019s visited. And don\u2019t come back from overseas and go directly onto a farm\u2026give yourself seven days away from farm animals, even if you\u2019re a farmer.\u201d<\/p>\n
If FMD does get into Australia, Mr Young added, it would \u201cflood the domestic market with excess stock\u201d as overseas trade became more limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll affect every livestock farmer, and potentially those involved in grains and all the offshoot industries too. Being a predominantly export-driven livestock economy, Australia exports 70 per cent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in the short-term, what it\u2019d do is also stop any animals being sold off farms. The majority of farm produce would stop for 72 hours if it did get into Australia, and that means, like during COVID, bare supermarket shelves and a shortage of food in the immediate term. But that hopefully wouldn\u2019t last long, hopefully we could find the affected areas and deal with FMD there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Symptoms of FMD include blisters on the mouth, snout, tongue, lips or between and above the hooves on the feet, and anyone who has observed signs of FMD is urged to report them to the Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888, or to a local veterinarian.<\/p>\n
For more information on FMD, visit www.agriculture.gov.au and search \u2018foot-and-mouth disease\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lachlan Ellis You\u2019ve probably heard how devastating foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) would be to Aussie agriculture if it arrived on our shores, but a local farmer says we all have a part to play in containing the illness. FMD affects cloven-hoofed animals such as sheep, cows, and pigs, and can also be carried on people\u2019s […]<\/p>\n