Experts say Australia is a biosecurity nightmare.
Most of the inhabitants of the world's sixth largest country live in big cities clinging to the coast.
The north and interior are largely empty save for vast numbers of feral animals.
There are lots of horses, mules and donkeys out there as well.
No one knows exactly where they are, or how many there are.
For a new disease looking for a free piggy-back around the country, Australia is no longer able to rely on its island defences.
The post-pandemic world of renewed international travel and freight has opened the door again to all sorts of nasties.
It's not just the feral pests which officials currently have no way of tracking, but domesticated animals like horses.
It is estimated there are more than a million horses owned by Australians whether for personal enjoyment, sport or work.
At the moment, no-one knows where they all are either.
This says nothing for all the wild horses either - there could be up to half a million of them, some estimates claim there are 14,000 brumbies in the high country which need culling.
For biosecurity officials, it is just another doomsday scenario should one of the many equine diseases such as the Hendra virus catch a free ride.
Work is progressing slowly building a national traceability system for horses to combat these fears.
The Federal government has pledged $1.1 million to try and speed the work up.
The National Horse Traceability Working Group met for the first time in 2020.
This group was formed from the recommendation of a parliamentary report in 2019 and is made up of representatives of the Agriculture Ministers' Forum and the Australasian Racing Ministers' Conference and various other groups.
This group is focusing on horse traceability in the context of the prevention and containment of disease, in particular economically important emergency animal diseases and zoonoses (diseases that can be transmitted to humans from animals).
Food safety is an issue as well, after a consignment of feral horses in the Northern Territory destined for an export abattoir in Queensland took a mystery detour to Victoria earlier this year.
Some of those horses were carrying a toxic poison after eating a pretty flowering shrub in the outback commonly called indigo.
Apparently because of pandemic travel restrictions, the consignment was sent instead to a Gippsland knackery which added the horse flesh to pet meat.
That pet meat ended up killing dozens of dogs.
There was a real fear it could have been people, although in this case indospicine, which had never been seen before in Victoria, was not harmful to humans.
Just as we don't keep tabs on horses, we don't have many rules for the making of pet food either.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the funding was for the National Horse Traceability Working Group to continue its work to make recommendations.
"Horses and maintaining their health status are part of the rural social fabric on which Australian agriculture's continued productivity relies," Mr Littleproud said.
"Reliable national horse identification and traceability supports good biosecurity, exports, food safety and animal welfare outcomes.
"Establishing appropriate national arrangements will also help to bolster trading partners' confidence in our arrangements, including animal welfare attributes - and in turn assist access for horse product exports to markets."
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Chris McLennan
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
