By Andrew Whitelaw - Mecardo
In recent years overseas travel has become cheaper and easier and people are travelling to more exotic and ‘unusual’ destinations.
This travel brings with it the risk of disease spread on the feet of travellers, the worst of which is the dreaded foot and mouth disease.
As someone raised in South West Scotland, foot and mouth disease (FMD) remains a lingering memory of my youth. My home region was one of those worst affected, with the impact still lingering to this very day. In early March, I was fortunate to be selected by Wool Producers Australia to attend a training course organised and funded by The European Commission for the control of Foot-and-Mouth disease in Nepal. The purpose of the course was to gain an understanding of FMD, from both a theoretical and practical ‘hands-on’ approach.
The course was a great opportunity to learn about the disease from experts and to see the spread of the disease within Nepal in real time. The biggest takeaway from the course was the virality of the disease and the ease of its transmission – making it a huge risk for Australia.
This article is the first in a series related to FMD and will focus on the 2001 FMD outbreak in the UK.
What caused the outbreak?
The FMD outbreak was caused by a now infamous pig farmer (Bobby Waugh). The farmer from Northumberland had been feeding his pigs with untreated swill which likely had originated from likely illegally imported food used in the catering industry. The infected pigs continued to be sent to slaughter which contributed to the spread of the disease.
The farmer was eventually convicted of animal health crimes resulting in a fine of £10,000, 3 months with an electronic tag and banned from keeping pigs for 15 years.
It is now illegal to feed pigs leftover foodstuffs which contain meat, or have been in contact with meat. This is a preventative measure to ensure that disease does not enter the supply chain.
Why was it so bad?
There had been a previous outbreak in 1967, however, this was isolated to a small part of the country. The industry had changed dramatically by 2001, there were more animal movements and at greater distances. This lead to the disease being spread far and wide and made it more difficult to control and contain. This can be seen in the animation to the right (map).The spread of FMD
The only way to control the disease whilst maintaining market access was to perform a cull. There was a lack of resources within the industry to perform a cull of this scale resulting in the military being drafted. In my region, the army was used to cull animals and was stationed at the entrance to many parks/farms to control the movement of people.
In the end, 10,849,000 animals were culled, with the majority burned in funeral pyres.
What is the financial impact?
During the outbreak there were restrictions on the movement of livestock, this meant that all auctions across the country were closed for 11 to 12 months. This can be seen in Figure 1, where prices were not able to be recorded due to the lack of sales. The 2001 outbreak was the worst outbreak in the developed world and it is estimated to have caused the economy upwards of £20bn.
The flow on effect would be felt by the entire livestock supply chain from auctioneers to transporters, especially in the case of an extended outbreak. If we thought the financial impact of the 2011 live export ban was bad, it would be a drop in the ocean compared to an FMD outbreak.
In 2013, ABARES created a report outlining the potential economic impacts of an outbreak of FMD (read here). In the worst case scenario of a large multi-state outbreak, it is estimated that the cost over ten years would be up to $51.2bn to producers. There would also be additional economic impacts to other areas of the country including tourism.
Pricing sheep and cattle during 2001 fmd crisis
How to reduce risk?
At Mecardo we spend a lot of time advising organisations on risk and how to reduce exposure. In this authors opinion FMD is one of the largest risks that the livestock industry faces, and to finish this article I want to outline some ways of reducing the impact of a potential outbreak:
Education
Early containment is the most important factor in ensuring that an isolated outbreak doesn’t become an epidemic. It is important for those involved in dealing with animals including agents, vets & farmers are aware of the signs and symptoms of FMD. In a later blog post, I will provide a crash course on identifying the disease.
Electronic Tags
I have heard many agents and farmers complain about electronic tags. To some they may feel like an impost on conducting business, however, in the event of a disease outbreak, they will be priceless. The ability to use electronic tags to quickly determine the movements of animals will drastically reduce the likelihood of a large-scale epidemic.
Bio-security control
It is important to ensure that farms take biosecurity extremely seriously. Through ensuring that we continue to uphold our excellent reputation for strong biosecurity, both on-farm and by the government, we can reduce the likelihood of diseases entering the country.
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