One million travellers set foot on foot-and-mouth disease disinfectant foot mats at Australian airports

More than one million passengers from Indonesia have walked over disinfectant foot mats placed in Australian airports last July to prevent an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, while 40 tonnes of banned meat items have been seized at the border. The milestone occurred early on March 27, Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said, describing it as a timely reminder of the ongoing risk of FMD to Australia’s $76 billion agriculture sector. “While Australia remains FMD free, the risk to our agriculture industry remains.” A Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry spokeswoman told Countryman it was not possible to “definitively identify” which airport could claim the milestone. However, she said more than 200,000 of the one million travellers had arrived at Perth airport. Arrivals from Indonesia were highest at Melbourne Airport, at 29 per cent, followed by Sydney (25 per cent), Perth (22 per cent) and Brisbane (14 per cent). “Almost 4000 travellers arrive into Australia on direct flights from Indonesia every day,” the spokeswoman said. “These flights land at multiple airports across Australia... with many of these airports open 24/7. It is not possible to definitively identify individual passenger arrivals.” More than 40 tonnes of “FMD risk meat items” have been confiscated at Australia’s borders since last July, according to DAFF. Items seized included “all manner of cooked, processed and raw beef, pork and lamb, including floss, crackling and jerky”, the spokeswoman said. Last July, viral fragments of FMD and African swine fever were found in a single sample of dried pork floss seized from a shop in Melbourne’s CBD following targeted checks by Federal biosecurity officers. DAFF also revealed at the time that FMD viral fragments had been found “recently” in a beef product intercepted at Adelaide Airport after being brought in by a passenger who arrived on a flight from Bali. The traveller, who was issued a warning, did not declare the item until they were questioned at the Australian border. In October, an Indonesian man was deported and fined $2664 after trying to bring nearly 6kg of meat — including duck, beef and chicken insides — into Perth from the FMD-hit country. He had also failed to declare the items, which he told Australian Border Force officers he planned to sell to the local community. In August, a traveller arriving at Darwin Airport was fined the same amount after being busted with two egg and sausage McMuffins and a ham croissant from a McDonald’s in Bali. Individuals caught breaching Australia’s biosecurity laws face a maximum penalty of 10 years jail and or a $1.11 million fine, while corporations can be fined up to $5.55m. The disinfectant mats were among a raft of measures rolled out across Australia to boost biosecurity in the wake of FMD and lumpy skin disease outbreaks in Indonesia early last year. FMD was confirmed in Indonesia last May for the first time since 1986, following reported cases of infected cattle in the city of Surabaya on the island of Java. By July it had spread to dozens of provinces, including the tourist hot spot Bali, with more than 410,000 confirmed cases according to the Indonesian Government. FMD affects all cloven-hoofed animals including cattle, sheep, goats, deer and pigs. It is highly contagious and can be transmitted in air particles between animals housed closely together and through contaminated feed and water, vehicles, equipment, clothing and footwear. The Albanese Government set aside $134 million of biosecurity funding in the 2022-23 budget to bolster Australia’s response to exotic diseases. “Our biosecurity officers and inspectors do a fantastic job of keeping Australia’s environment safe from pests and disease,” Senator Watt said. The latest announcement comes after the Federal Government last month confirmed it would spend $1m to boost testing capability for exotic livestock diseases in Indonesia. The grant will enable CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness to work with Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture to enhance its laboratory capability for disease diagnostics, including building laboratory proficiency testing systems for FMD and LSD. The CSIRO will also work with Indonesian laboratories to produce control materials that can be safely distributed throughout the Indonesian network, ensuring “accuracy and consistency” of diagnostic testing. If detected in Australia, FMD could shut down export markets overnight, devastating the nation’s livestock industries and costing the economy $80 billion over 10 years according to DAFF.