Northern Australian authorities band together to prevent lumpy skin disease entering cattle industry
In a Darwin agricultural centre, biosecurity officials and pastoralists are wargaming an emergency scenario — lumpy skin disease has just been detected on a remote territory cattle station and all of northern Australia is now at risk.
Such a situation, or a similar incursion of foot-and-mouth disease, would "decimate [the] industry very quickly," according to the NT Cattlemen's Association's Ceny Hussie.
"An incursion of either [of] those diseases would shut down our export markets overnight," she said.
Neither lumpy skin disease or foot-and-mouth disease have ever been detected in Australian cattle.
But after both diseases reached Indonesia in 2022, Australian biosecurity authorities have been on high alert.
At a trade conference in Jakarta this week, Australian cattle exporters were told millions of Indonesia's stock had been lost since the outbreaks.
In 2022, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences estimated a foot-and-mouth outbreak in Australia could cost the economy $80 billion over 10 years in a worst-case scenario.
According to the Northern Territory's chief veterinary officer Dr Rob Williams, the Indonesian outbreaks have led to a national focus on both diseases.
"It's still a low risk in terms of foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease, but because the consequences are so high, we still have to treat it very seriously," he said.
During a three-day exercise in the NT, an allegiance of Queensland, West Australian and NT authorities are wargaming their response to any potential outbreak.
While similar drills have been held before in the NT and other states, this is the first time northern Australia authorities have come together to collectively test their disease control processes.
Lumpy skin disease is transmitted by biting insects, while foot-and-mouth disease can be carried on footwear and clothing, as well as in food.
Neither pose any risk to humans, but are highly contagious among livestock.
In the event of an outbreak, the first step would be a national meeting of federal and interstate biosecurity teams and industry representatives, according to WA's deputy chief veterinary officer Dr Marion Seymour.
"We would already be thinking about any movement restrictions we might need to put in place … [and] how we would go about our initial tracing and surveillance for the disease," Dr Seymour said.
Dr Williams said that would require a bovine version of the 'contact tracing' Australians became accustomed to during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But he said that would easier to do for cattle than humans, due to a small identification chip implanted in each cow's ear.
Those tags are scanned every time cattle are moved around the country, so authorities can track their movements.
"There's always going to be cases that we miss — but largely speaking, the system works very well," Dr Williams said.
He said experts also had a greater range of tools at their disposal to prevent disease spreading in cattle, than they do in human populations.
"We do use a lot of similar elements like vaccination — but we do undertake depopulation in certain disease outbreaks, to ensure we get back to disease-free status as quick as possible," Dr Williams said.
With the biosecurity wargames set to wrap up on Thursday, the NT Cattlemen's Association believes the best defence against an outbreak is preventing it from entering the country in the first place.
"If you are coming back from anywhere overseas, make sure you're being honest on your declarations … and protecting the biosecurity of our industry that we love," Ms Hussie said.
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