Aussies to face strict foot and mouth biosecurity screening when returning home from Bali

Australian travellers returning home from Bali will be forced to clean their shoes in strict new measures to stop an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. 

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese must take control of the disease response and elevate the threat as a national security committee priority.

 ‘There’s a herd of about 65 million livestock in Indonesia at the moment, there are about 400,000 cattle that have been identified with the virus. They’ve got 3 million vaccines for the 65 million herd; it’s across 22 provinces and it’s spreading like wildfire,’ The Australian reported. 

Mr Dutton, who received a briefing on the situation this week, said unlike other countries where foot-and-mouth disease has been detected, the Indonesian outbreaks were out of control. 

‘Given the significant two-way traffic between Bali and Perth and the rest of the country, through Jakarta, into Sydney, Melbourne … this is a very significant issue,’ he said. 

‘If it is detected in one cow, or one livestock, one sheep, or one pig here in Australia, the industry closes down overnight. There are no exports.’

Passengers arriving back from the holiday destination will also be required to take their shoes off and walk over sanitation mats in new biosecurity zones at airports.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt on Friday confirmed his department would implement tough new measures that will be applied to all passengers in a bid to protect the country’s livestock. 

‘The difference with these new powers is that rather than having the ability to ask individual passengers to do certain things and relying on their agreement, these new powers if introduced, would apply to all passengers were circumstances required,’ Mr Watt said. 

‘Our agriculture industry is at stake and it’s vital we continue to work together to ensure Australia is foot and mouth disease free.’ 

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt (pictured) confirmed airports will implement tough new biosecurity measures in all international airports across the country to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease

Mr Watts rejected calls to ban flights from Indonesia and dismissed criticism that the government wasn’t acting fast enough to halt the spread. 

‘I think we have been bold, we are taking steps that have never been taken before. I have consistently said we will continue adding measures as required,’ Mr Watt said.

‘We will continue to fix the cracks in the wall, the biosecurity wall that was left by the previous government.’

The mats contain a citric acid solution, designed to dislodge any dirt from the sole of shoes before covering them in acid. 

Other biosecurity measures include passenger declarations, profiling of all travellers entering from Indonesia, real-time risk assessments, questioning and shoe cleaning.

The new biosecurity response zones, set up under section 365 of the federal Biosecurity Act, will be installed at all international airports and will allow officers 100 per cent risk profiling of travellers entering or returning from Indonesia.

‘These powers have been available to the Australian government for the last seven years and they have never been used,’ Mr Watt said.  

‘We would be the first government in Australian history to use these powers to direct all passengers to comply with biosecurity requirements.’ 

All Australian travellers returning home from Bali will be forced to clean their shoes or step over sanitation mats in designated  airport response zones

All Australian travellers returning home from Bali will be forced to clean their shoes or step over sanitation mats in designated  airport response zones 

A $14 million biosecurity package was announced by the government last week for more frontline defences in airports and mail centres as well as support for Indonesia and neighbouring countries to combat the spread.

Foot and mouth is a viral disease that causes lesions and lameness in livestock including cattle, sheep, goats and pigs.

An outbreak of foot and mouth disease would cripple Australia’s agriculture section as a single local case would result in widespread animal culling and stop the movement of livestock. 

Indonesia has been grappling with the spread of the disease which was recently detected in Bali.

If allowed to spread in Australia, the disease is predicted to cause an $80 billion hit to the economy over 10 years.

Foot and mouth is a viral disease that causes lesions and lameness in livestock  and  is predicted to cause an $80 billion hit to the economy over ten years if it spreads to Australia

Foot and mouth is a viral disease that causes lesions and lameness in livestock  and  is predicted to cause an $80 billion hit to the economy over ten years if it spreads to Australia

Indonesia has been grappling with the spread of the foot and mouth disease which was recently detected in Bali (stock image), a popular holiday destination for Australians

Indonesia has been grappling with the spread of the foot and mouth disease which was recently detected in Bali (stock image), a popular holiday destination for Australians 

Viral fragments of foot and mouth were detected in pork products at a Melbourne retailer on Wednesday.

The products, believed to be imported from China, were detected in the Melbourne CBD as part of routine surveillance and have been seized. 

Australia remains free of the diseases as the live virus was not detected, but Mr Watt’s reiterated the importance of biosecurity measures.

That’s despite Senator Watt admitting the biggest risk of importing the highly contagious virus into the country was via meat products – not by a traveller. 

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