How foot and mouth disease could get into Australia

The Department of Water, Agriculture and Environment has doubled the chance of an FMD incursion from nine per cent to 18 per cent, after an outbreak in Indonesia.

DAWE animal biosecurity assistant secretary Peter Finnin said because FMD was "the big one", it was the subject of a great deal of regular research around the world.

"People have a really good understanding of the biology," Dr Finnin said.

"One of the characteristics of this particular disease is it's highly contagious, so it doesn't take many of us particles to actually transmit the disease.

"It can be quite stable in the right conditions, so it stays infectious in products, and it can stay stable in the right conditions; moist, not too hot, not too cold, not too basic, not too acidic."

Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer Beth Cookson said the FMD incursion pathways had fewer uncontrollable variables than other biosecurity threats.

"I don't want to sound overconfident because it is the big one, but there is a lot less unknown about food and mouth disease as compared to say lumpy skin disease," Dr Cookson said.

Unlike other diseases such as lumpy skin or Japanese encephalitis, FMD isn't carried by insects, so DAWE is not concerned it will be blown over by a cyclone or carried in by migrating birds.

The Indonesian outbreak is believed to have been started by a goat illegally smuggled from Malaysia. There are similar fears the disease could island hop through the Torres Straits via the trading of live pigs between the islands and Papua New Guinea.

However, Dr Cookson said trading pigs was not a big part of the Torres Strait's cultural practice, and the island's residents had a "very high rate of biosecurity awareness".

"Biosecurity is a very big part of their social conscience through a long history of having biosecurity officers deployed through the region," Dr Cookson said.

"I worked in that region for quite some time and we had one incident of that sort in the last 15 years, where a live pig was bought with traditional visitors to the Torres Straits - it was reported to the biosecurity officer within a matter of hours."

The agriculture industry has also raised concerns about illegal fishermen from Indonesia bringing the disease to Australia's shores. However, Dr Cookson said when those illegal boats have been raided, the fishermen were found to be sustaining themselves on rice and fish, not meat products or live animals at risk of spreading the disease.

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Dr Finnin said the biggest risk was the "bald primate" - humans bringing the virus back through contaminated food or soil.

"The main transmission pathway [into the country] we're worried about is humans - it's what they're actually carrying in their luggage, maybe on their feet or on their clothes because they haven't taken a time to clean wash," Dr Finnin said.

"Around the world, when it gets into new places, usually there's been some sort of human involvement in that.

"So people smuggling animal meat products that have been contaminated or people inadvertently walking onto farms with their shoes that have been on a premises where there has been FMD before."

Education is one of Australia's greatest biosecurity weapons. DAWE wants all farmers to know how to identify signs of foot and mouth, while those travelling overseas need to be aware of their responsibilities.

"We are cognisant that people now have the opportunity to head off to Indonesia and Bali for holidays again," Dr Finnin said.

"It is important we make them aware they need to declare where they've been, what they've got, if they've been on a farm. We're not going to haul you away, we just want to check your shoes and take that ham sandwich away."

The other pathway focus is the movement of live cattle from Australia to Indonesia, with fears the disease could be brought back on the return journey.

Dr Finnin said since the Indonesia outbreak, department staff had been sent to inspect the biosecurity safeguards of live cattle export and DAWE had "received really good advice that everyone's taking it really seriously".

"We do have accredited stockmen who will travel with our livestock across two Indonesia, but generally they're coming back via commercial air routes," Dr Finnin said.

"So we provided some advice to them about what they should do with any other gear that has been in contact with any animals either on the vessel or in Indonesia."

Swill feeding (which is illegal in Australia) and infected rubbish thrown overboard from ships, which is later eaten by livestock, have also been pathways of FMD incursions into other countries.

"This idea of swill feeding - where you just use whatever waste you have and feed it to the pigs - is a very common way in which we've seen FMD transmitted in a whole range of circumstances," Dr Fennin said.

"Pigs tend to be very susceptible to the disease and they also tend to be the sort of animals that will eat almost anything.

"That's why we have really effective controls around any waste streams that might be coming into the country."