A message on biosecurity from the MLA Managing Director

MLA takes the threat posed by foot and mouth disease (FMD) and lumpy skin disease (LSD) incredibly seriously. Australia is currently free from FMD and LSD and it’s our top priority to keep it that way.

We know that our members’ livelihoods depend on maintaining our disease-free status and it’s the reason we are working tirelessly with industry and government to collectively strengthen our approach to a potential disease outbreak.

It’s the Australian Government’s responsibility for protecting Australia from these diseases, and the industry is doing everything we can to support their work. The AUSVETPLAN, managed by Animal Health Australia, steps out in detail what would happen should there be an incursion in Australia.

MLA is the service provider to the red meat and livestock industry. In this case, MLA’s role is to support and collaborate with Government and the Red Meat Advisory Council (RMAC) and provide key technical advice via our subject matter experts as part of the crisis management process.

MLA is part of a FMD and LSD Taskforce which currently meets weekly and comprises senior representatives from the RMAC, the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF), Australian Dairy Farmers, Australian Pork Ltd, Australian Wool Innovation, Dairy Australia, LiveCorp and AMPC.

MLA has also partnered with the Australian Government to deliver biosecurity support to Indonesia. More than $2 million will be invested over 18 months, providing technical and training support to:

• instil long term biosecurity capacity to manage exotic diseases
• minimise disruption to the live cattle trade
• support cattle vaccinations within Indonesia
• build Indonesian Government’s confidence in their feedlot sector to manage diseases to continue trade and food security
• assist Indonesian smallholders to manage and minimise disease spread.

We are also investing in the development and testing of mRNA vaccines that can be rapidly mass-produced in Australia to protect against exotic disease outbreaks.

Australia has some of the strictest biosecurity protocols in the world and industry has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop lifetime traceability systems in preparation for any exotic disease incursion. While FMD has been a threat to our industry for over 100 years, its spread to Bali reinforces just how vigilant we all must be.

Special e-newsletter updates like this one is one of the ways we will use to update you on our investments and activities supporting the industry to keep these exotic diseases out of Australia.

For the latest information, you can also go to mla.com.au/fmd-and-lsd where you will find links to:

• the latest information from the Australian Government
• a link to Animal Health Australia’s AUSVETPLAN.