This year, Australia will give Indonesia another one million doses of the lumpy skin disease vaccine and $1 million to improve testing facilities for rare diseases, including foot-and-mouth.
According to Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, an initial delivery of 500,000 vaccine doses will be made in the upcoming months “to address Indonesia’s immediate demand,” with further deliveries to follow throughout the year.
The two illnesses were described as “the most significant threats to Australia’s biosecurity integrity in decades” by Senator Watt, who made the statement on March 17 in Darwin.
“Australia is free from both FMD and LSD, but we must continue supporting our close neighbours to prevent or successfully respond to these illnesses, which may have a terrible impact on their food security and economic prosperity,” he added.
We can protect our agriculture industry and the industries it depends on because of our excellent partnerships with nations like Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste.
It comes after Australia spent more than $6 million last year sending Indonesia 435,000 doses of the LSD vaccination and 4,000,000 doses of the FMD vaccine.
LSD, according to Senator Watt, continues to pose a serious threat to Australia’s cattle sectors and economy even though FMD has gotten most of the attention.
To lessen the burden of the disease in Indonesia and the chance of LSD invading Australia, he added, “These vaccines will provide significant support to Indonesia as it strives to stem the spread of the disease.
Australian veterinarian Michael Patching, who lives in Singapore, wrote in the most recent South East Asian Beef Market Report, published on March 16, that LSD and FMD were still spreading throughout Indonesia.
According to anecdotal evidence he has from multiple sources on the ground, particularly in Central Java and Yogyakarta, where there are numerous new illnesses of indigenous livestock, “LSD infections tend to be under-reported,” he said.
There are still significant supply and distribution problems with vaccines, particularly those involving smallholders and LSD.
The Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness at CSIRO will collaborate with Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture to improve the latter’s laboratory capacity for disease diagnostics thanks to a $1 million Federal grant.
The grant will aid in developing FMD and LSD laboratory proficiency testing systems in Indonesia, enabling the disease investigation centre network of the nation to evaluate the accuracy of its diagnostics and pinpoint areas where capability needs to be strengthened.
To guarantee the “accuracy and consistency” of diagnostic tests, the CSIRO will also collaborate with Indonesian laboratories to generate control materials that can be securely transferred throughout the Indonesian network.
The Australian Institute for Disease Preparedness, according to CSIRO CEO Larry Marshall, was essential in strengthening the country’s resistance to biosecurity threats.
According to Dr Marshall, “CSIRO’s national lab’s support team in Australia as part of a regional network to allow Australia and neighbouring partners like Indonesia to respond to these threats through precise identification and detection in real-time.
“There is no better approach to combat global risks than through global partnership – by supporting Australia’s defence against the most urgent animal disease threats to our country and strengthening the biosecurity of our Indo-Pacific neighbours.”
After outbreaks of FMD and LSD in Indonesia at the beginning of the year, the Albanese Government set aside $134 million in biosecurity money in the 2022–23 budget to strengthen Australia’s response to exotic diseases.
These diseases are highly contagious, and if they were to be discovered in Australia, they could shut off export markets instantly, decimating the country’s cattle sectors and costing the economy billions of dollars.
Animals kept in close quarters can contract FMD through contaminated feed and water, equipment, vehicles, clothing, and footwear.
