WITH close to half the national cattle population within its borders, Queensland has strengthened prevention and preparedness efforts in response to the detection of lumpy skin disease and foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia.

Image: Swelling of lymph nodes across the animal’s body. Source: AW Coetzer, E Tupparainen, S Babiuk and DB Wallace (2018). Lumpy skin disease. In Infectious Diseases of Livestock.

Both diseases have the potential to cause significant and far-reaching impacts to Australia’s livestock industries, including considerable economic losses and restrictions.

The state government’s chief veterinary officer and general manager for animal biosecurity and welfare, Dr Allison Crook, said the Department of Agriculture along with other government departments and industry stakeholders, were working together to closely monitor the situation and boost preparedness arrangements.

“We’ve established a Preparedness Taskforce with key industry, supply chain and government agency stakeholders to ensure our preparations are timely, informed and united,” Dr Crook said.

“Prevention and preparedness messaging is being delivered to all stakeholders and we are implementing enhanced surveillance, response and diagnostics procedures, ensuring our staff are trained, our emergency kits are stocked and we are ready to respond.

“We know the key to Australia’s defence is vigilance, early reporting and ensuring every livestock supply chain enterprise in northern Australia has adequate biosecurity measures in place. We continue to collaborate with our livestock industry networks and are encouraging everyone along the supply chain to look, report and protect.

Livestock owners know their animals best. Key actions you can take now are:

LOOK – for and know the signs of animal disease

REPORT- anything unusual to the Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888 or your local vet immediately.

PROTECT – your livestock and livelihood:

• Have a biosecurity management plan in place and that it is being followed by all those who access your property. More information is available at farmbiosecurity.com.au
• Ensure you are a Registered Biosecurity Entity. Registration helps in quickly locating animals and contacting livestock owners in the event of an animal disease emergency in Queensland. Visit qld.gov.au/BiosecurityRegistration
• Keep up to date with the latest developments about emergency animal diseases at www.daf.qld.gov.au. You can also check out our emergency animal disease preparedness eHub that brings together resources and information in one place at  daf.engagementhub.com.au/animal-disease-preparedness 

Source: DAFF