A NEW $5 million program announced to study foot and mouth disease vaccines in neighbouring countries and their suitability for use in Australia has been met with warm praise by industry leaders.
In the new program, Australian livestock industries will fund collaborative research to enhance the nation’s FMD vaccine bank by working at trail sites in South Africa on sheep vaccines, Vietnam on pig vaccines and Argentinean beef vaccines.
It will be managed by Animal Health Australia with the research carried out by CSIRO scientists from the Australian Health Laboratory (AAHL).
It is estimated that over $20 million has been spent in Australia on FMD preparedness programs in recent years and this new research program hopes to accelerate the current one week turn around for FMD diagnosis and vaccine development.
Meat and Livestock Australia managing director, David Palmer, this week announced a $2 million injection to the new program, which was praised by livestock groups which were opposed to a recommendation in the Beale review into quarantine that live strains of the virus be brought to Australia to help with research into the disease.
When announcing the funding, Mr Palmer pressed the importance of Australia retaining its FMD free status.
"It is vitally important we protect our $16 billion (sheep and beef) export business that is so utterly dependent on export," Mr Palmer said.
"Our continued freedom gives us unparallel market access to over 100 beef and 50 sheep countries."
Mr Palmer said an outbreak of FMD had the potential to cost the Australian livestock industry up to $4 million a day.
Cattle Council of Australia executive director David Inall praised Meat and Livestock Australia’s joint funding of a new foot and mouth disease (FMD) preparedness program as "extremely valuable" and an "excellent start" in the study of the virus.
Mr Inall congratulated MLA, Animal Health Australia and the Australian Government for resisting the importation of live FMD virus into Australia, arguing that the approach to use neighbouring countries to study the virus was in the best interest of the Australian livestock industry.
"Australia has never had FMD, and we never want FMD, this is the next best option to bringing the virus in which we are vehemently opposed to," Mr Inall told Rural Press.
Victorian Agricultural minister Joe Helper said FMD remained the "biggest risk to agriculture in Australia".
He said a vaccine approach to FMD control was becoming the preferred front line combat approach over slaughtering, which brought "huge economic and social consequences" and "needless" killing of a lot of animals.
Global Institute for Animal health director, Jef Hammond said it was important Australia kept up its proactive approach to dealing with the threat of FMD, saying concentrating on vaccine was critical.
"Australia’s livestock population is virtually untouched (by FMD) so there are some issues whether vaccines will work as well on Australian animals," Mr Hammond said.
Mr Hammond said last year had been the busiest year for FMD tests with 1037 sample from 36 countries tested, up 300 per cent on 2008. Over half these tests had resulted in a positive detection of FMD.
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