Victorian farmers have become more aware of the impact that biosecurity breaches could have on the industry since foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease was first detected nearly a year ago in Indonesia.
Work from the Victoria Farmers Federation's (VFF) Stock Sense group showed the threat of FMD have encouraged a significant uptake in farm biosecurity plans, but many want to know how that will affect them on farm.
There are also concerns that some sectors of farmers, especially smaller peri urban farmers, could become complacent when it comes to disease or pest outbreaks.
VFF Livestock president Scott Young said the organisation were taking steps to engage with those smaller farmers.
"The Stock Sense program is trying to engage with peri urban farmers and pick up some of those people who have fallen through the gap, so a lot of work is to be done," he said.
"We've acknowledged that this is a bit of an issue, and we are actively working towards running programs to pick those people up and making them aware of those issues and obligations like being accredited."
Data collected from the workshops showed trends in the search of the term "FMD in Australia" had grown by 450 per cent in Victoria since this time last year.
Most of this interest online has come from regional Victoria, and it has been reflected in person as well, with Stock Sense reporting a high percentage of first-time attendees and increased attendance at workshops.
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In the case of an incursion Agriculture Victoria will implement a livestock standstill which means the movement of any livestock anywhere in Australia would not be allowed for at least 72 hours.
But Mr Young believed farmers understood those wider impacts, but it was important that have good biosecurity practices on their own properties along with government measures.
"I think producers are still quite aware of FMD and lumpy skin and there is a lot of proactive work in educating them about the diseases, and our biosecurity," he said.
"The government runs a livestock consultative group that runs monthly to work better outcomes... and while it isn't really in the media, industry is being updated and much work is happening in the background.
"We are looking at disposal sites, looking at the permit system and what may happen if a disease hits. and a lot of work is happening in the background, to ensure that we are prepared."
Mr Young also said old biosecurity signages were also not relevant to new trespassing laws, and urged farmers to familiarise themselves with new legislation to protect them from disease threats.
"We can cover off two birds with one stone here if [farmers] update farm biosecurity plans to cover those laws and that will be also be a good thing for biosecurity safety as well," he said.
Data collected by the Stock Sense group also showed biosecurity requirements were the number one topic of interest for future workshops with FMD and Lumpy skin disease being mentioned as key diseases of interest.
While farmers were more aware of the risk of FMD through media coverage, there was also some concerns of how this risk is being managed at both a state and federal level and how it would affect them on farm.
Chief Veterinary Officer Graeme Cook said efforts at a government level to inform farmers about FMD had been substantial.
"It's important to keep farmers up to date with the latest information on the increased risk of foot-and-mouth disease to Australia, as well as support them to implement good biosecurity practices which can keep our state from emergency animal disease outbreaks," Dr Cook said
He also said the state government had committed $33 million "in the past nine months to boost our technical and specialist expertise, improve laboratory and workforce surge capacity, acquire response equipment, and collaborate with other states and territories to build consistent policies and plans."
Agriculture Victoria had delivered 248 events for producers and stakeholders with ongoing updates and support since the discovery of the disease in Indonesia in May 2022.
Dr Cook said authorities will stay focused on keeping any animal disease out of the state, and Agriculture Victoria are contributing to a lot of work underway at both a state and federal level.
"We will continue this important work into the future to make sure Victoria is prepared to respond to any emergency animal disease outbreak and to ensure our communities are well-protected by practising good biosecurity measures and keeping informed," he said.
Authorities have been busy suppressing risk, including the discovery of 38 tonnes of high-risk biosecurity material, including boxes of avian, beef and pig meat, which was seized in Sydney on Monday.
In March, a government contractor responsible for dumping imported meat products which fail border screening was found to have breached biosecurity laws.
