How EVERY Aussie flying from Bali will be checked for foot-and-mouth disease at the border as the minister warns residents will be questioned and their shoes and luggage disinfected
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Every Australian flying back from Bali will be checked for foot-and-mouth disease at the border, a minister has announced.
Agriculture Secretary Murray Watt said $14 million will be spent fighting the spread of the disease in Australia and abroad, questioning returning Aussies and sanitizing their shoes and luggage.
“We need the traveling public to take this seriously,” he told reporters in Sydney.
“If foot-and-mouth disease enters our country, it will be a devastating blow to our agricultural industry, especially our livestock industry.
“While there is a lot of attention for the traveling public returning from Indonesia… the riskiest way for foot-and-mouth disease to enter our country is through animal products, meat products and dairy products.”
Senator Watt said that as a result of that spread, the government is now creating risk profiles of passengers returning from Indonesia.
Agriculture Secretary Murray Watt said $14 million will be spent fighting the spread of the disease in Australia and overseas
“If one of those passengers meets the risk profile…then those passengers are screened and they go through… interrogation, shoe shine, baggage screening, sniffer dogs,” he said.
“If someone does come back to the country and declare that they have had contact with a dam or cattle, or received grains or meat products or any of the usual things that you have to declare, then those passengers are also screened.”
Of the $14 million, $5 million will go to on-site measures in Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea, including technical assistance and epidemiological support.
Another $9 million will be spent on 18 new biosecurity officers who will be stationed at Australian airports and postal centers as well as sniffer dogs in Cairns and Darwin.
Funding will also go to a new Northern Australia coordinator to manage surveillance and preparedness strategies across the region.
Senator Watt warned the disease could hit the economy by $80 billion if it spread in Australia.
The government had previously provided $1.5 million for at least one million doses for Indonesia’s foot-and-mouth disease vaccination program, following a formal request for help after the disease spread to Bali.
Senator Watt has returned from Jakarta, where he discussed the outbreak of the disease with his Indonesian colleague.
Cases of foot-and-mouth disease were discovered in the country in May and later surfaced in Bali, which welcomes more than 100 flights from Australia every week.
Travelers entering Australia have been advised to ensure that their clothing and shoes are free of soil or manure.
The agriculture minister said it is a joint responsibility to keep the disease out of the country.
“We need the state and territory governments to play their part to ensure they are prepared if we see an outbreak coming to Australia,” he said.
“We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our farmers and we owe it to all Australians to take this disease seriously.”