INTERNATIONAL experts on infectious livestock diseases including foot and mouth disease (FMD) have warned Australian policymakers need to prioritise collaboration and communication to ensure recovery strategies are in place to deal with an outbreak in Australia that would cripple our meat and dairy industries.
According to Victoria's Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) Professor Charles Milne (pictured), his experiences during the devastating 2001 outbreak in the United Kingdom, and as CVO for Scotland during the 2007 outbreak, showed FMD was a disease that had a profound economic impact.
Prof Milne said at a forum at the University of Melbourne last Thursday - as part of a series hosted by the Gardiner Foundation - the 2001 outbreak was estimated to have cost the UK £8 billion and tourism was the hardest hit industry.
He reminded the forum the crisis started when one farmer fed his pigs non-treated swill and by the time infected carcases were traced back to his farm, it had spread to a neighbour's sheep herd. In a matter of weeks, 16 sheep were sold off that farm and dispersed through the marketing system around the country; and FMD had the entire UK in its grips.
He said even after Scotland was declared free of the disease, it took another seven years to reopen the market in meat to all previous trading partners.
Graeme Garner, director of Animal Health Epidemiology at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, said a large outbreak would cost Australia more than $50 billion, and 99 per cent of these losses would be trade-related.
Prof Milne warned complacency was the biggest risk in Australia; for example Australia's Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong only received 20 to 40 suspected FMD samples each year and that was too low.
He said a recent experience reassured him the Victorian Government took the risk of FMD seriously.
"In Victoria, we had a suspected case of FMD in recent weeks, and the Premier and Agriculture Minister were up at 3am to hear the, fortunately negative, result; and we will shortly rehearse everyone's role in the first few crucial days of an outbreak.
"We've also initiated a review of surveillance in Victoria; including at saleyards, abattoirs and knackeries. When we see more samples coming in from them, we will have succeeded."
He said another danger was backyard pig owners because the UK experience showed it only took one farmer to do the wrong thing to start an industry-crippling outbreak, and despite swill feeding being illegal in Victoria, it needed to be better communicated to all people irrespective of cultural background and language.
University of California Research Professor of Economics Alan Olmstead said hard-learned lessons from the 10 FMD outbreaks in the US included the necessity of getting the public and politicians on-side to ensure tough measures could be taken quickly to control an outbreak.
Prof Olmstead said the ongoing Ebola crisis demonstrated how a virus could become politicised and sensationalised in the media, so self-appointed "experts" get as much air time as scientists who have been studying the disease for decades.
He said the crisis also showed how systems could break down, including "embarrassing mistakes" in the transport of hazardous waste and a reluctance of people to comply with quarantine.
Tim Carpenter, a Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases at Massey University in New Zealand, added while the last FMD outbreak in Australia occurred in 1876, it continued to be a real threat to Australia's agricultural industries because it was considered the most highly contagious livestock disease and was widely spread through areas of Asia.
Prof Carpenter said vaccinating against FMD was a "hot topic" because it was impossible to vaccinate against all the sub-strains and an existing six-month ban on selling meat from the vaccinated animal added to the economic considerations.
Prof Olmstead said to prevent an FMD outbreak, Australia should continue to be vigilant at its border controls and it should be monitoring other countries including in Asia that have FMD to make sure that products from those countries weren't slipping past quarantine controls.
"FMD could come in a variety of ways. The scientists know how to keep it out. The question is do the policymakers continue their resolve to be tough enough to prevent it coming in?"