THE Australian Government has today agreed to an industry request to open a pathway to import live lumpy skin disease virus to accelerate diagnostic capability and enable testing of lumpy skin disease vaccines.
The Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud said the importation decision followed consultation, risk assessment and appropriate regulatory controls, and would help Australia ensure industry has the best possible vaccine protection for emergency use and a well-developed national diagnostic capacity for early detection.
The decision follows a written request from the Cattle Council of Australia which met last week and resolved that importing the live virus was a necessary step to give Australian scientists the best chance to control the disease in the event of an outbreak.
“Lumpy skin disease is a serious disease of cattle and water buffalo, with potential for considerable animal welfare implications and economic losses,” Minister Littleproud said.
“It has never occurred in Australia but is an emerging threat as it continues to spread through Asia and is now present in Indonesia.
“Import of live virus is our best bet to prepare and protect Australia, and it is not a decision that we have taken lightly. Live virus would only be held at our world-leading Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) under strict containment.
“Importing live virus would also lead to opportunities to develop more suitable vaccines, which will be of benefit to not just Australia but also the Asia-Pacific region.
“The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment will work with the ACDP to assess its processes and facilities to ensure the safe import. They will also consult in more detail with peak industries and states and territories.
“It is good to see we have support from our peak industry bodies and state colleagues to take this step – and to provide additional assurance, I have asked the Inspector-General of Biosecurity to review the proposed import process and compliance controls.”
“I welcome the decision by the department to appoint a dedicated senior officer to a new role to coordinate national action to protect Australia and implement preparedness strategies.
Find out more by visiting: awe.gov.au/lumpyskin
Lumpy Skin Disease key points
The office of the Minister for Australia has provided the following points about on Lumpy Skin Disease:
- Importing the live virus and vaccine into ACDP under biosecurity control does not change Australia’s disease status.
- There is no threat to human health from this disease.
- All commercially produced vaccines are only available overseas and contain modified live lumpy skin disease virus.
- Dr Mark Schipp, Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, recently visited Indonesia, where this disease has been recently reported. There is now a significant risk that the disease has spread beyond the Sumatran province where it was first detected and is likely already more widespread.
- Impacts would be felt across the live animal export trade, and by exporters of genetic materials, dairy products, animal by-products such as hides, and some meat products.
- If you’re travelling to Australia, importing goods or ordering goods through the mail, be aware of what is permitted entry to Australia. You can do this by checking the website at awe.gov.au/travelling/bringing-mailing-goods. Some foods, animal and plant products can carry pests or diseases that you won’t know are there.
- Cattle producers must be alert for signs of disease in their cattle. If cattle are showing signs of illness that are consistent with lumpy skin disease, this needs to be reported as a matter of urgency to the Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888 or to your local vet.
I doubt Beef Central would publish the words I’d like to use to describe this idiotic move, its about as dumb as the idea of bringing foot& mouth here to do research.
“Secure facility”??? Lets look at Calicivirus, supposedly developed in a secure facility but mysteriously escaped; “Equine flu” – horses held in a secure import facility, and look what happened there, ended up costing the horse industry an absolute fortune. And let’s not forget the latest secure facility that had a little oopsy, I think its name was “Wuhan” or something like that, cost the world an absolute fortune and is still going on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Factual errors included in your comment, John – and also in another comment below.
1) Calici did not escape from the secure Geelong research facility. It was released onto a remote island as part of routine field trial work to test efficacy on the local rabbit population before broader release. The virus ‘escaped’ from the island – NOT the secure Geelong research facility. It is commonly believed that calici was deliberately removed from the island, via a dead animal, by a person or persons who had grown impatient over its release into the wild, because it clearly worked.
2) The World Health Organisation’s investigation found zero evidence to support the theory that the Wuhan virus facility was responsible for COVID.
Readers are reminded of the need for factual accuracy when submitting comments. Future reader comments containing factual errors will simply not be published. Editor
This is a bad idea, all exotic disease outbreaks since about 1900 have come from ‘secure’ labs or botched experiments. Trojan Horse. We’ll later regret this decision and many cattle will be lost because of it – of course if you wanted to eliminate red meat production/consumption by 2030 it is a great idea.
Cattle Council got BJD management wrong for years until a few grass roots producers demanded change!
I don’t think it is smart to bring the virus here for trials,better to send our people to Indonesia for same!
Remember Calisivirus?
What about compensation for producers that may have LSD detected in their herd? I am sure they will destroy the infected herd for the benefit of our industry but will the affected producer be compensated by industry or will we have a replay of the BJD debacle?