Australia is “behind the eight ball” in trying to prevent an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, following the “decimation” of government-funded animal health programs in the past 20 years.
That’s the assessment of Michael Perich, one of the country’s biggest dairy farmers, agribusiness banker David Williams, and former Victorian premier and livestock vet Denis Napthine.
The trio fear Indonesia’s outbreak of foot and mouth disease will quickly spread to Australia as thousands of tourists return from holidays in Bali.
Mr Perich – who farms 30,000 head of cattle at Leppington Pastoral in western Sydney and is chief executive of ASX-listed food and supplement company Noumi – is particularly concerned about the ability of schools with cows, pigs, alpacas and other cloven-hoof animals to detect and contain an outbreak.
Mr Perich – who says he has not seen a government-funded livestock vet on his farm in years – said unlike the varroa mite outbreak that had been contained around Newcastle, it would only take one animal infected with foot and mouth disease to shut down Australia’s multibillion-dollar meat and dairy exports.
“There are a lot of countries that are either foot and mouth disease-free or are in what’s known as a controlled state … and they only buy from foot and mouth disease-free countries,” Mr Perich said. “A lot of them would shut their trading doors (to Australia).”
Shares in Australia’s biggest cattle producer – ASX-listed AACo, which owns about 1 per cent of Australia’s land mass – have fallen more than 18 per cent in the past month to $1.84 a share.
While the company regained some ground on Monday, rising 2.2 per cent, investors are concerned about what an outbreak would do to red meat supply and prices.
Meanwhile, shares in Elders – which hiked its interim dividend this year by 40 per cent to 28c a share, thanks in part to strong livestock pricing – has fallen about 5 per cent in the past week.
Mr Perich has written to the NSW Education Department to request a ban on student contact with school-based agriculture programs that have farm animals onsite. “We work with schools allowing visits to our farms, plus we donate calves for programs focused around raising dairy calves,” he wrote. “At our farms we implemented last week a 7-day isolation program for any employee or visitor to our farm that has travelled internationally.
“With schools returning back today (Monday), a number of schools have susceptible animals – cattle, buffalo, camels, sheep, goats, deer and pigs – we wanted to ensure that schools are aware of the risk to the $80bn agriculture industry and extreme caution should be taken with any international traveller.”
Dr Napthine – who before entering politics was a government veterinarian who worked on disease eradication programs – said such state-funded animal health programs “virtually don’t exist anymore”.
“The animal health side of the Department of Agriculture has been decimated in the past 20 years. There just isn’t that network of people on the ground,” Dr Napthine said.
“We have got to be absolutely vigilant about preventing it (foot and mouth disease) getting into the country, and the second thing is we’ve got to be absolutely ready to respond immediately if it does get in. On both cases, we’re both behind the eight ball.”
Dr Napthine said the rise of hobby farmers also put the country at risk of a potential outbreak.
Mr Williams, who advises a host of Australia’s biggest agribusinesses, said more government veterinarians were needed.
“And if they are not available then manufacture a solution using vets from private practice, eg from Apiam, one of Australia’s biggest veterinary practices, which is listed on the ASX,” he said.
But he said companies also needed to take responsibility.
“Good corporate governance requires food and ag companies to rate the risks to their businesses. Biosecurity should be one, two and three on that list but rarely are.”
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt announced a $14m fund to ward off the disease, which has reached Indonesia and East Timor.