New portable sample testing and mobile incident centres are among the new measures planned by the Victorian government in a $10 million package, responding to any future emergency animal disease outbreak.
The government said the package built on Victoria's preparedness to ensure authorities could respond swiftly if there was a local detection of animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth or lumpy skin disease.
The support would be tailored to industry and community, with the development of a campaign to help stop the spread of foot and mouth disease outbreak.
"Our livestock industries are extremely valuable, and we must have the infrastructure and people in place in case of an emergency animal disease outbreak - investing now means we will be prepared to respond swiftly and protect our livestock, farmers and biosecurity system," Agriculture Minister Gayle Tierney said.
"We will continue engaging with industry, farmers and communities, to ensure they are prepared if an outbreak were to occur."
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Agriculture Victoria chief veterinary officer Dr Graeme Cooke said both FMD and Lumpy Skin Disease were major threats to Victoria.
If an outbreak occurred, a portable testing lab would be deployed to outbreak locations to allow real-time on-site sample testing.
The funding would also ensure farmers were equipped with resources, in the case of a detection, to enable them to liaise with Agriculture Victoria as quickly as possible, should a livestock standstill need to be implemented.
The government is set to establish Mobile Incident Command Centres, and roll-out IT system upgrades to easily track outbreaks and coordinate online permits for livestock movements.
Specialist training in emergency animal diseases, outbreak management and recovery arrangements will also be rolled out to identified government agency staff and industry.
An additional 49 dedicated emergency animal disease staff are also being recruited to advance response measures already underway.
The funding builds on Victoria's extensive emergency animal disease preparedness efforts and will support the work of the Emergency Animal Disease Taskforce established last month.
To learn more about foot-and-mouth disease and biosecurity preparedness, visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/FMD.
