Lumpy skin threatens to devastate cattle game: NTCA conference

President of the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association David Connolly said 'the stuff of nightmares' was knocking on northern Australia's door and if it made its way in it would 'not just be an issue for those in beef or rural areas but one of national significance'.

Lumpy skin disease outbreaks are now only 3000 kilometres off Australia's shores in Sumatra, African swine fever is in Papua New Guinea and Japanese encephalitis virus is spreading across the country.

One of the Federal Government's top biosecurity men told those at the NTCA's 2022 conference 'we would be mad if we didn't start with the presumption Australia is going to get lumpy skin disease.'

The deputy secretary of biosecurity and compliance with the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment Andrew Tongue said the way trade protocols are written would mean just one case of it in Australian cattle or buffalo would put an immediate end to live cattle exports.

He also revealed that up to 20 per cent of pork confiscated from international travellers entering Australia carry fragments of swine fever and occasionally authorities also find fragments of foot and mouth disease.

But the natural pathways for lumpy skin to enter Australia are giving authorities the biggest headaches right now, with the CSIRO's working theory that JEV arrived via Tropical Cyclone Blake two years ago.

Mr Tongue said governments and producers would have to work together, immediately, to put in place bulletproof surveillance so that a case can be dealt with immediately.

"Everything we thought we knew about how lucky Australia is in terms of biosecurity is no longer true," he said.

"We now have to work together to make our own luck."

Lumpy skin is a viral disease spread by insects. While mortality is low, it has big animal welfare consequences, significant production losses and enormous trade implications.

Mr Connolly said as a country built on exporting food and fibre, the damage to Australia's global reputation for failing to protect its livestock from the devastation of a disease outbreak would be beyond measure.

"Our supply chains are all orientated in one direction - out," he said.

"We do not want to have these diseases here and look back on what we could have done.

"The worst part is this: We know we have a problem and how big it is but we are not doing enough to stop it."

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Federal Government modeling indicates a minor incursion of foot and mouth disease in northern Queensland would cost Australia more than $6 billion and lead to the collapse of the rural economy nationally.

"To eradicate England's foot and mouth disease outbreak in the early 2000s they had to send in the army to destroy more than 6 million head of livestock," Mr Connolly said.

"Should an outbreak happen here, that number would be worse and it would take decades for us to come back from."

The Federal Government's announcement this week of a further $61.6m over four years for biosecurity measures would not be near enough, industry leaders at the conference agreed.

Mr Connolly said the bulk of that needed to be spent in the Northern Territory but the kicker was, anyone could apply for funding.

"So if you look at the maths, if it is spent over three states, that is $5m per year - is that enough?" he said.

The NT had only six biosecurity officers, where at least 20 were needed.

The situation was alarming, Mr Connolly said.

"There has been an overall downward trend by governments to invest in agriculture, including biosecurity," he said.

"In the 96/97 budget, $69.1m was allocated to the NT Department of Ag and it had 401 staff.

"In today's money, that is $80m. Yet in the last NT Government budget the same department received $47.1m and was supported by 250 staff.

"This is a disturbing trend when we rely on this department for protection of the industry itself."

Geopolitical and geophysical factors are combining to put Australia at far greater risk of diseases like lumpy skin and JEV, Mr Tongue said.

"As the rise of China has occurred, global trading patterns have been re-routed and that has meant the man-made pathways of pests and diseases have changed," he said.

"Africa is connected to China and South East Asia much more than it previously was.

"Alot emerges from Africa that we worry about and today those diseases are a couple of weeks away whereas previously they were 16 years away."

Lumpy skin has traveled from Africa since 2006, accelerating as it moved towards Australia by reaching six new countries in the past 12 months.

The second factor at play is climate change, which is changing wind directions, heat, humidity and affecting the natural pathways.

Should the disease reach Australia, we would be required to report it to the OIE immediately and that would mean not only live cattle but hides, milk and a whole range of cattle products can no longer be exported.

"With 90pc of Indonesia's domestic cattle coming from 6.5m small farms, the emergency in that country has effectively crossed a tripwire for us," Mr Tongue said.

Australia is rallying. Biosecurity experts, including our chief veterinary officer, are in Indonesia now working to suppress the outbreak.

We are buying vaccines to go into Indonesia and will shortly have staff in Timor as well to support them if the disease reaches there.

"The bad news is this disease is spread by vectors and it's not just cattle but water buffalo in the north that could host it," Mr Tongue said.

"Our big worry is that as the disease gets closer, the likelihood of it blowing in on vectors increases, as we believe was the case with JEV."

More funds have also been directed to traceability in Australia, which Mr Tongue said would be key to how we respond.

Man-made pathways are also under extreme scrutiny.

Mr Tongue said 70,000 goods cross Australia's border daily. His dream scenario is people flying in naked with no luggage.

Biosecurity is an expensive business. Australia has 3000 people involved in that area of DAWE, including 400 scientists combing through data on every disease headed our way. More of those resources have now been deployed to lumpy skin and JEV.

"But we will need pastoralists on the ground to build surveillance, to stay focussed on what to look for and know who to call," Mr Tongue said.

"We need to contain this the minute we find it. Delay will be death."

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