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| Foot and Mouth Disease - Frequently Asked Questions
FMD is an acute infectious viral disease. It is probably more infectious than any other disease affecting animals and spreads very rapidly if uncontrolled.
Susceptible farm animals include cattle, sheep, pigs, deer, goats and alpacas. Other susceptible animals include elephants, giraffes, camels, llamas, hedgehogs, buffalo and some rodents.
Horses are not susceptible. Nor are most family pets, such as dogs, cats, rabbits, fish or birds.
In infected animals, the FMD blisters usually burst after a few days and the resultant sores generally clear up over a few weeks. During this time, animals have considerable difficulty in eating and walking. FMD therefore causes much suffering and loss in production. However, FMD is not usually fatal in healthy adult animals.
If an FMD outbreak were to occur, our major export markets for meat, dairy product and possibly even wool would be closed to us immediately. This could devastate our livestock industries, our processing industries and rural communities. As the 2001 FMD outbreak in the UK demonstrated, an outbreak of FMD here would also have a significant effect on our tourism industry. The Productivity Commission has estimated that a major outbreak of FMD could cost the Australian economy between $8 billion and $13 billion - which translates into a very large number of jobs lost and businesses shutting down. It is also estimated that the rural communities most directly affected could take up to ten years to recover from the effects of a FMD outbreak.
Pictures of FMD infected animals usually show very obvious symptoms. In actual practice, the blisters and sores are not always as obvious. This is particularly so in sheep, where the percentage of infected animals exhibiting graphic blisters or sores can be quite small. This is why it is so important to contact the all hours exotic animal disease hotline on 1800 675 888 if you see anything unusual in your livestock.
Surveys indicate that most people know that blisters around the mouth and on the feet are the classical FMD symptoms. Fewer people are aware that sores around the mouth and on the feet are also symptoms. And even fewer know that lesions on the teats and udders can also be signs of FMD. The blisters usually burst after a few days and become sores, so there is a strong chance that anybody seeing FMD for the first time will see sores rather than blisters.
Descriptions and pictures of FMD symptoms in Cattle , Sheep and Pigs are available from the Australian Government website for FMD.
FMD is not a serious threat to human health. There have been very isolated cases of people, who have been working extensively with FMD infected animals, developing mild flu-like symptoms. There is no evidence that FMD can be caught by members of the general public. There is a human condition known as Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. It is not related in any way to Foot and Mouth Disease.
There is no evidence that there is any risk to human health from eating meat or dairy product that might be from a FMD infected animal.
The FMD virus is not present in Australia, so any outbreak would have to be the result of the virus being brought in from overseas.
The most likely path is through the importation of infected animals, semen or infected food. That's why Australia doesn't allow imports of any live animals, semen, uncooked meat or unprocessed dairy products from FMD affected countries.
Other risks are soil, straw and other material that might be on imported farm machinery or on footwear or clothing and that could harbour the FMD virus. Also used animal handling equipment such as halters.
The UK outbreak in 2001 was started by a farmer who fed his pigs swill, which included infected meat that had come from overseas. Swill feeding is banned in Tasmania.
Australia has long had some of the strictest quarantine regulations in the world. Effective and vigorous policing of those quarantine regulations is our most important line of defence against the importation of FMD.
Since the FMD outbreak in the UK in 2001, the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) has recruited 1000 more staff, doubled the number of x-ray machines for quarantine screening and now has 48 detector dogs.
If you are planning an overseas trip, make sure you know what you are not allowed to bring back into Australia. Find out how you can help keep FMD out of Australia when you return.
The FMD virus is present in great quantity in the fluid from the blisters on an infected animal. It can also be present in saliva, exhaled air, milk, semen and dung. At the height of the disease, virus is present in the blood and all parts of the infected animal’s body.
Animals can pick up the virus by close contact with an infected animal or with foodstuffs, equipment, people or anything else that may have been contaminated by the virus.
An infected pig’s breath contains a large quantity of FMD virus particles. Airborne spread of the virus can occur over considerable distances under favourable climatic conditions. When conditions are near-still or there is only a gentle breeze, the infected pig’s breath can form a viral plume which has the FMD virus in sufficient concentration to infect animals a long distance away. If there is a strong wind, the viral plume usually disperses to the extent that the concentration of FMD virus is reduced and that, in turn, reduces the risk of airborne spread of the disease somewhat.
In short, the greatest risk of FMD spread comes from animal to animal contact and from airborne virus from an infected pig.
While humans cannot become infected, they can nevertheless spread the virus. Hair, clothes and mud on vehicles are the most likely means of humans spreading the disease.
Yes. All states have agreed to the AUSVETPLAN, which is a detailed contingency plan for responding to the outbreak of any of the major exotic animal diseases, including FMD. Access the AUSVETPLAN in full.
Tasmania is also a signatory to the cost sharing agreement which enables compensation to be paid to farmers whose livestock are slaughtered in the FMD eradication process. It is important to ensure that there are no incentives for livestock owners to conceal any animals that might have FMD symptoms.
DPIW has a specific program, known as the Biosecurity Emergency Preparedness Program or BEPP, which has the role of managing Tasmania’s state of readiness to deal with any biosecurity emergency, including an outbreak of FMD. BEPP’s functions include the recruitment and training of around 150 standby staff to work in control centres and in the field in the event of an outbreak, and updating and fine tuning our outbreak response plans.
A Rapid Response Team (RRT) has also been established at the national level to help ensure there is an immediate and effective response to any FMD outbreak. The RRT is a 40 member “flying squad” of highly trained professionals who can be deployed to any part of Australia at 24 hours’ notice. The RRT was established specifically to provide smaller states, such as Tasmania, with a greatly enhanced capacity to respond quickly to any FMD outbreak.
- An immediate ban on all livestock movements. As a result, all livestock sales, agricultural shows and race meetings would be cancelled. The restrictions on the movement of non-susceptible animals, such as horses, might be eased once the full extent of the outbreak was known. Also, some other animal movements may be allowed but only by special permit;
- Our key export markets for meat, dairy product and possibly even wool would be closed to us. Other countries would take those markets from us;
- There would be restrictions on people movements. Road blocks would police those restrictions;
- Restrictions on the movement of animal products (ie meat, dairy produce and possibly wool) would also be policed by road blocks;
- The number of tourists coming into Tasmania would fall significantly, with a resultant loss of jobs in the tourism industry;
- There would be mass testing of animals by teams of vets. All susceptible animals (ie cattle, sheep, pigs etc) on infected properties and on properties neighbouring those infected properties would be slaughtered. If the disease were spreading out of control, as it did in the UK in 2001, all other susceptible animals within a 3 km radius of an infected property might also be slaughtered to create a "firebreak" as a means of bringing the spread of the disease under control quickly;
- There would be intensive testing of animals within 10 kms of an outbreak;
- If the movement restrictions prevented the transport of feed to animals (such as in feedlots or in winter or drought), those animals may also be slaughtered for welfare reasons;
- Disposal of large numbers of carcases would begin, mostly by burial in large excavated pits.
- Our key export markets would be closed to us;
- An immediate ban on all livestock entering Tasmania;
- Immediate restrictions on the movement of livestock, including a ban on livestock sales;
- Possible restrictions on the movement of people and animal products (such as meat and dairy produce);
- People arriving in Tasmania from the mainland would be required to walk through footbaths on arrival and vehicles driven over disinfectant pads;
- All susceptible livestock that had entered Tasmania in the previous three or four weeks would be traced and subjected to intensive testing for the FMD virus;
- If no case of FMD occurs in Tasmania for three weeks after the livestock standstill has been in force, it is likely that the disease has been successfully kept out of the State. The three month process of proving our FMD free status can then begin;
- Once we are confident we have kept FMD out of Tasmania, we would send teams of vets and stock officers to the mainland to help eliminate the disease over there.
- Thirty days after the slaughter and decontamination of the last FMD case, sentinel animals are placed on the previously infected properties. These animals are regularly tested for FMD for at least another 60 days. If no sign of FMD is detected, an application for the reinstatement of FMD free status can be made to the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE);
- If the OIE approves the reinstatement of FMD free status, our key export markets can be re-opened. This will not necessarily mean we resume trade. It simply means we can now compete with those countries that have been supplying our traditional export markets during the FMD outbreak;
- The process of rebuilding the ravaged rural communities and industry sectors, including the tourism industry, starts;
- If the FMD outbreak were on the mainland only, we may be able to start trying to win back our key export markets from three months after FMD was first diagnosed;
- If the FMD virus entered Tasmania, it might be at least 12 months before we could re-enter the world markets and try to regain our export trade.
FMD is widespread. The World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) currently lists 60 countries as free of the disease. Some other countries have zones that are recognised as being free of the disease.
FMD was last recorded in Australia in 1872.
1. Move all livestock away from the boundaries of your property.
As soon as they are told of an FMD outbreak in their region, the first thing livestock owners should do is move their livestock away from their boundaries – ideally into a paddock with secure fencing in the middle of their property. If all livestock owners do this, it will create a network of buffer zones. This simple action is probably the most important thing that livestock owners can do to help contain the spread of the disease – providing, of course, it is done quickly and that there is a clean muster of all livestock from those boundary paddocks.
If you have livestock on a property that is separate from your home block, the stock standstill will prevent you bringing your animals home. So you should move your animals away from the boundaries on each of your separate properties. In these first few hours of an FMD outbreak, we won’t know whether the disease has spread beyond the infected property and therefore we won’t yet have a clear picture of which other properties are at some risk of already having the disease. So, as a precaution, you should change your clothes and hose the mud off your vehicle as you leave each property. As an added precaution, you should also use a suitable disinfectant (one that is iodine-based is generally effective) on your footwear and vehicle tyres. You should reduce the number of times you visit each of the separate properties as much as possible.
2. Isolate any recent livestock arrivals and contact the State Disease Control Headquarters (SDCHQ).
If you have bought any livestock through saleyards in the last three weeks and if any of these animals have come from the FMD infected property or any other property nearby, your property will be a “trace”. This means the SDCHQ will contact you and arrange for your animals to be checked for any signs of FMD. It will help our vets do their job more quickly if you can separate these new animals from the rest beforehand and have them handy to your stockyards for inspection.
If you have bought any livestock privately or if you have had any animals arrive on your property in the last three weeks for any other reason (for example, agistment, the loan of a bull or ram etc), our SDCHQ is unlikely to know about these stock movements. If the new animals have come from anywhere near the infected property, you should contact the SDCHQ and arrange for these animals to be inspected for any sign of the disease.
3. Make sure the SDCHQ knows about any pigs nearby.
With most species, it requires close contact between an infected animal and an uninfected animal for FMD to spread. That is why creating buffer zones around each property (see above) could be the most effective action we can take in the early hours of an outbreak. However, pigs present a much greater problem, in terms of containing the spread of FMD.
FMD can be spread over long distances simply by an infected pig breathing. An infected pig’s breath contains about 1,000 times the concentration of FMD virus particles when compared with the breath of an infected cow or sheep. In other words, if a pig has FMD, it can spread the disease by viral plume even if the livestock owners in the region have created these livestock-free buffer zones around their properties. It is therefore most important that we know about any pig in the region. Because infected pigs are by far the most efficient spreaders of FMD, we need to find and slaughter all pigs within a few kilometres of an outbreak as a means of helping prevent the disease “leapfrogging” throughout a region.
As part of our Biosecurity Emergency Preparedness program, our stock officers visit pig owners regularly to conduct swill audits (ie ensure that no-one is feeding swill to pigs). Our database of pig owners includes all commercial pig farmers and most smallholders who have pigs. We continually update that database and it would prove most useful in the event of an FMD outbreak. However, it is inevitable that some people who have a “backyard” pig or two might not be on our database, so it is important that these pig owners contact the authorities as soon as possible if an FMD outbreak were to occur.
4. Get the latest information on the outbreak and proper advice on what you can do to help contain the spread of the disease.
An outbreak of a highly contagious animal disease such as FMD is likely to cause great anxiety in the community – especially among livestock owners near the infected property or properties. The UK outbreak in 2001 showed that rumours and ill-advised theories about the disease can spread quickly and can make a difficult situation much, much worse.
If you are a livestock owner or a resident of the region where an FMD outbreak has occurred, what you do – especially in the first few days of an outbreak – could have a major influence on how far the disease spreads. So, please make sure that, when you get advice on what to do, it is good advice based on sound science and the collective experiences of the vets and others who have actually worked in combating FMD outbreaks overseas.
If an FMD outbreak were to occur anywhere in Australia, a phone hotline will be operating within hours. It will be able to answer most queries from the public about any aspect of the disease outbreak. The hotline number will be advertised extensively and also posted on our website as soon as an FMD outbreak is confirmed.
A special website www.outbreak.gov.au has been established to provide the latest information on any emergency animal or plant disease outbreaks in Australia. This website can be accessed now. It would be used to provide the latest information on any FMD outbreak, as it comes to hand, online.
Please understand that our knowledge about the nature and spread of a particular FMD outbreak is likely to change rapidly in the first few days. In this time, we will be identifying the “traces” – in short, the other properties that may have acquired the virus from the infected property. If, for example, the owner of the infected livestock has sold animals through a saleyard in the preceding three weeks, this would create many “traces” that we will have to follow up – in most cases by actually inspecting the animals on-farm. There is, therefore, some chance that further outbreaks may be diagnosed elsewhere around the State. If this happens, information about the restrictions on livestock movements and advice on human movements may change rapidly during the first few days of an outbreak. Please check the www.outbreak.gov.au website regularly or listen to your local radio news, ABC Country Hour etc to ensure you have the latest information on the outbreak and what restrictions are in place.
5. Abide by all movement restrictions. (Please note that the following information about movement restrictions is a guide only. If we were to have an FMD outbreak, details of movement restrictions would be broadcast widely, including on this website, and they would override the general information provided below.)
The point of restrictions on the movement of animals, animal products and humans during an FMD outbreak is to help contain the spread of the disease. Anybody breaching these movement restrictions would be placing the community at considerable risk.
If there were to be an outbreak of FMD, the initial movement restrictions would be very wide ranging. This is because it may take some time for the authorities to identify the specific strain of FMD virus and to have a reasonable idea of how far it may have already spread. Once the nature of the outbreak is better understood, some of the initial movement restrictions may be relaxed.
In an FMD outbreak,
Initially (ie until we have a reasonable understanding of the nature of the outbreak – possibly a day or two). - A complete ban on the movement of all livestock. Any livestock in transit when the movement restrictions are applied would either have to be returned to the property they came from or transported to an abattoir. The initial ban on livestock movements is likely to include horses and dogs.
- A ban on “animal events” such as livestock sales, gymkhanas, rodeos etc.
- There would also be a ban on the movement of most unprocessed animal products (meat, milk, wool etc), but this ban would not prevent people from taking groceries home from normal retail outlets.
- Road blocks would be established at the boundaries of “restricted areas” (ie areas within at least 3km and possibly up to 10 kms from an infected property). People will be discouraged from entering these restricted areas unless they have urgent business.
- People living on an infected property would be encouraged to remain on their property unless they have urgent business off the property, in which case they will have to undergo decontamination each time they leave the infected property.
- Farm workers and contractors (ie shearers, agricultural contractors) would be discouraged from going onto farms.
Once we are better placed to understand the nature and extent of the outbreak -- The movement restrictions on non-susceptible livestock (horses, dogs etc) may be lifted, depending on the level of contact they have had with susceptible livestock.
- Sporting and social activities in rural areas would be able to proceed, unless there are local circumstances that may create the potential for virus spread.
- A permit system would be established to enable the movement of susceptible livestock, providing those livestock are not at risk of spreading the virus.
- Farmers on infected properties would be encouraged to come and go from their farms and lead as normal lives as possible, providing they decontaminate each time they leave the property. Importantly, children would be able to return to school and anyone with off-farm employment would be able to return to work. In practice, this would probably involve the erection of a quarantine barrier at the front gate and the people changing into clean clothes (especially footwear) as they leave the infected property. All vehicles leaving an infected property would have to be thoroughly decontaminated at this quarantine barrier. As this takes so much time, it is more likely that farmers would have one of their vehicles decontaminated and then garaged at the quarantine barrier, so they could use that for travelling off-farm.
- Movement restrictions on animal products would be reviewed and lifted wherever this did not risk spread of the disease.
- People living within a “restricted area” would be encouraged to go about their business and any restrictions on people movements would be minimised to enable this to happen.
- Agricultural contractors would be encouraged to return to their work. Contractors working within a Restricted Area may be required to decontaminate their equipment each time they leave a property or if they move their equipment to outside the Restricted Area. With smaller pieces of equipment (such as tools, shearing gear etc) the decontamination process is quick and should not interfere with the contractor’s normal business. However, decontamination of machinery (especially machinery with extensive internal working parts such as headers and balers) can be time consuming, so this would have some effect on the contractor’s business until the movement restrictions are lifted completely.
In the 2001 FMD outbreak in Britain, some people were in effect kept prisoner on infected properties for weeks and, in some cases, months. Our intention is for people on infected properties to be able to resume lives that are as normal as possible as soon as possible. In most cases, this should be within a few days of their property being quarantined, providing they abide by the decontamination process (outlined above) each time they leave the infected property. Once the infected property has been destocked and disinfected, farmers should normally be able to come and go without any inconvenience.
Inspect your livestock regularly. Any unusual signs of disease should be investigated. If you don't know what is causing the problem, find out. If necessary, call a vet to check the animal.It is most important that possible FMD symptoms are checked by a vet. If your vet is unavailable, don't delay - contact the all hours Emergency Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888 and speak to the duty vet. If you suspect that someone is feeding swill to their pigs or if you know of someone attempting to sell swill to pig owners, it is most important that such activities are reported to the authorities. The outbreak of FMD in the UK in 2001 caused the slaughter of millions of livestock, the loss of thousands of jobs, the closure of many businesses and serious long term damage to many rural communities. It was started by a farmer feeding swill to his pigs.
The Australian government DAFF website on FMD.
The UK government website on FMD: www.defra.gov.uk/footandmouth/
The AUSVETPLAN for FMD
Contact: EAD PreparednessLyndel Churchill
Executive Officer
EAD Preparedness, DPIW
1 Franklin Wharf
HOBART TAS 7000
Phone: 03 6233 6357
Fax: 03 6233 6386
Email: Lyndel.Churchill@dpipwe.tas.gov.au
Contact: Animal Disease EnquiriesAnimal Disease Enquiries
Phone: 03 6233 6875 or 1300 368 550 (local call)
Email: AnimalDiseaseEnquiries@dpipwe.tas.gov.au
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