Foot-and-mouth disease

An outbreak of the highly contagious disease could devastate the livestock industry and also poses a 'critical risk' to your regular cup of joe.

“Nobody wants to be the person who brings in a disease that would devastate our livestock industry, cost the economy $80 billion, and shatter regional communities for years to come,” he said on Wednesday. He also warned of the dire threat the disease posed to the cattle industry and the livelihoods of thousands of farmers across the state. “The disease would leave scars on rural Australia for years to come.”

Biosecurity officials say New Zealand has guaranteed access to vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease if it is detected here.

An outbreak could have a severe impact on the economy however. "But that said, we do have some experience in dealing with these sorts of things, we've got recent experience in dealing with Mycoplasma bovis, we have got some of the best biosecurity systems in the world, and that could mean that there would be the possibility that rural regions could bounce back from this very quickly." Anderson said the vaccines could be shipped to New Zealand "within a matter of days" if needed.

The disease, which can cause severe lameness and death in cloven-hooved animals including cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats, was also confirmed in the holiday ...

An outbreak could have a severe impact on the economy. Anderson said the vaccines could be shipped to New Zealand "within a matter of days" if needed. "We have 500,000-odd doses of vaccine covering the nine main strains of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK in a vaccine bank, which is available for our exclusive use, and they can rapidly ramp up manufacturing more if we were to need them," he said.

Australian travellers returning from Bali could face tough restrictions as fears grow over the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

“The impact of getting this wrong is catastrophic, it is biblical proportions the impact it would have on Australian farmers, Australian animals and Australian consumers.” Foot and mouth disease is one of the most serious livestock diseases in the world and affects cloven-hoofed animals like cattle, sheep, and pigs. “We cannot overstate the impact of foot and mouth disease if it got into this country,” Ms McDonald told Sunrise on Thursday.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews says there are concerns foot and mouth disease has already come into Australia and has not yet been detected as ...

Foot and mouth disease is one of the most serious livestock diseases out there. It's a highly contagious virus that affects cloven-hoofed animals — that is, ...

If foot and mouth disease is found in Australia, we would be cut off from the export market, which makes up about 70% of Australia’s meat trade. Alert officers to anything that may have come into contact with an animal and don’t be precious about your luggage. Holidaymakers could easily pick up the virus on their clothes or shoes by visiting farms, petting buffalos or pigs in markets or fields, or even just by walking around temple grounds, the road or the sidewalk. It is incredibly contagious — about as contagious as the COVID-19 Omicron variant, according to Professor Michael Ward — and in most cases, the whole flock will catch it. On top of this, having never dealt with our own outbreak before, it’s hard to know how quickly we could eradicate the virus. However, you can’t know what cloven-hoofed beast has walked the streets before you, so experts are also warning that you ditch your footwear on the island.

Biosecurity NZ says vaccines could be ready to roll out within days if FMD detected here.

An outbreak could have a severe impact on the economy, however. Anderson said the vaccines could be shipped to New Zealand "within a matter of days" if needed. Foot-and-mouth vaccines can protect cattle once the virus is detected on a farm, but are tricky to roll out - the virus has a number of strains and the vaccine needs to match the strain that is circulating to be effective.