Foot-and-mouth disease

The Albanese government has ordered that parcels from China and Indonesia be checked in mail centres as part of extraordinary biosecurity measures imposed to ...

It would be a massive blow to our trade and diplomatic relationship with Indonesia which is not justified by the level of risk. Cash told reporters in Canberra it was a decision for Labor whether to close the border. “We never shut the borders when the UK had an outbreak in 2001. Patrick Hutchinson, the chief executive of the Australian Meat Industry Council, said Australia should “absolutely not shut the border” to Indonesia and that “cooler heads have to prevail”. If he’s got a reason, then let him explain it.” Watt told Guardian Australia the government had not shut the border with Indonesia because the science didn’t support that and local agricultural producers thought that would be “a disproportionately drastic measure to take”.

Should Kiwis cancel their Bali trip over this highly contagious disease?

"Indonesia, including Bali, currently has an outbreak of foot and mouth disease affecting animals," the website reads. More notably, its presence in Bali (a popular tourist destination for Aussies), has made some Australian experts nervous that travellers could bring the disease back via soil on their shoes or contaminated animal products. In fact, the department has only issued a level four advisory for a disease once in its entire history, and that was for Covid-19. On the MFAT side of things, the risk of Indonesia getting a 'Do Not Travel' advisory for a disease that cannot directly impact people, is very low. "We have a strong and multi-layered system that has some of the strongest settings in the world," he said. "New Zealand doesn't have foot-and-mouth disease and we need to keep it out," the statement read.

All trade in animal products would be stopped if the livestock disease reached Aotearoa, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.

They work for you, not the parties or people in power. Whatever your politics, we can all agree: New Zealand is better off when Kiwis are well-informed. “Foot and mouth disease has been always considered the doomsday disease for the New Zealand farming sector,” he said. Ardern said, if the disease was detected early in New Zealand, the Government would have to do “everything that we could to try and get rid of it”. The Government has warned of a “doomsday” if foot and mouth disease reaches New Zealand and its farms. "It would devastate our national herd ... In the event of foot and mouth reaching New Zealand all trade in animal products would be stopped ... Animals would be slaughtered, and more than 100,000 jobs in the primary sector would be at risk," Ardern said.

Stringent biosecurity measures are currently being put to the test as the country pushes to prevent the spread of an outbreak of FMD into Australia.

The aim is to prevent any contaminated meat entering the country through airports while there is a still an outbreak impacting Indonesia. In response to this, various measures have been taken by state and territory governments to prevent the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) reaching our shores. This is why we have such strong biosecurity at our international borders.” Thankfully, the country has regimented biosecurity processes. Calls have been made to provide farmers with financial assistance to help implement these practices. Grown animals will mostly recover but younger ones can die or be left with permanent and disabling deformities.

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On masks in schools and a mandate, Ardern said the Government was keeping an open mind. On a current jump in hospitalisations, Ardern said there was about a two-week lag, and school holidays could have therefore influenced the reporting of cases. The focus now was getting through winter, and now was not the time to change anything, Ardern said. Ardern said there was a significant agenda on climate and she had full confidence in James Shaw. Ardern said she pushed back on any suggestions the Government had not been ambitious, adding Labour had come in with a significant agenda themselves. He said with all the efforts put in they hoped not to find foot and mouth in NZ. He said he could not put a figure on the scale of the risk NZ now faced. This did not affect the running of the Government and so was for the party itself, she said. When questioned on the Green Party co-leadership contest, Ardern said the political rules of each party was a matter for them. Ardern said she was not aware of plans to reopen direct flights to Indonesia from New Zealand, but if that were to happen the appropriate biosecurity measures would need to be in place. The full reopening of the borders is likely to mean an increase of visitors from Indonesia, which is not a visa waiver country, and where the foot and mouth disease outbreak has caused concern for Australia and New Zealand because of the impact it would have on their economies. The foot and mouth disease briefing comes ahead of the final stage of the international borders opening again from Sunday, allowing visitors and students from anywhere in the world to come to New Zealand, and the reopening of maritime borders to cruise ships. It was a new outbreak in Indonesia and New Zealand would do all it could to keep it out.

Expecting mail from China or Indonesia? The government says absolutely everything coming into Australia will be scanned for biosecurity threats.

"The number of people with visibly contaminated shoes that needed cleaning had also dramatically fallen compared to the previous week. The Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Analysis has advised the Australian government that there is an 11.6 per cent probability of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak happening in Australia in the next five years. "Pleasingly, the number of people who had brought in products that were deemed to be a foot-and-mouth disease risk was much lower than it had been the previous week," he said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia could cost thousands of New Zealand jobs, as her nation and ...

"While not a threat to humans, it would devastate our national herd. In Australia, parcels and baggage from China and Indonesia are now being checked and there are also foot mats at airports in response to the disease. Ardern warned that the disease, first detected in Indonesia in April, has the potential to threaten up to 100,000 jobs in New Zealand's agriculture sector.

Stud breeders are urged to preserve Australia's best beef bloodlines in case FMD affects the $32 billion red meat sector.

But people are certainly giving it that thought because it could be a disaster." She said the threat of disease incursion was not new to the industry, and the livestock sector had to remain vigilant. "Potential incursions have always been a risk and it's just something we need to live with and learn to deal with in the long term." "It's the complexity of dealing with that volume of cattle … you'd have preserve a huge number of embryos and semen to even begin to capture the diversity," she said. "It's critical because we've got genetics developed in Australia, unique to Australia, and the Australian environment," he said. - FMD was found in Indonesia in May and has spread to a number of the country's provinces

The disease is already ripping through Indonesia, and is creeping ever closer to paddocks Down Under, where an outbreak could spell disaster for the livestock ...

The outbreak triggered restrictions on the country’s meat exports and access to the countryside was curbed for visitors. Although the virus comes from the same family — Picornaviridae — as those responsible for common colds, hepatitis A and polio, foot-and-mouth disease crosses the species barrier to infect humans only rarely and with little effect. The virus can also be transmitted via contaminated meat and other animal products, and survive in the environment for several weeks. It is characterized by fever and blister-like sores on the tongue and lips, in the mouth, on the teats and between the hooves. The disease is often spread by humans via their shoes, clothes and luggage — and particles can even live in people’s noses, where they may survive for up to 24 hours. Australia is on high alert for foot-and-mouth disease in its cattle herds after traces of the virus were found on imported animal products.

All mail and freight being sent to New Zealand from Indonesia will be subject to strict screening in a bid to avoid an outbreak of foot and mouth disease ...