The Hon. Mark Furner, Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries and Minister for Rural Communities (Qld), Media Release, 17 June 2022

A new, online one-stop information portal for Lumpy skin disease (LSD) and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) preparedness is now available to livestock owners and other industry stakeholders at https://daf.engagementhub.com.au/animal-disease-preparedness.

Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries and Minister for Rural Communities Mark Furner said the Queensland Government was working closely with its industry taskforce partners to prevent and prepare for the biosecurity threats.

“With both LSD and FMD confirmed in Indonesia, the key to Australia’s defence is vigilance, early reporting and ensuring every Livestock Supply Chain enterprise in northern Australia has an updated biosecurity plan in place,” Mr Furner said.

“Early detection will help our valuable livestock industry to minimise the economic and community disruption of any animal disease outbreak.

“The newly-developed eHub brings together all the latest information about identifying LSD and FMD.

‘It has links to biosecurity planning tools and training packages for the Livestock Industry Supply Chain, and land and livestock managers, and tracks the progression of these threats towards our borders.

“It will be a collaborative site with the preparedness resources being developed by our key stakeholders also shared on the eHub.

“Livestock owners should be aware of the signs of LSD and FMD and report suspect cases immediately to the Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888.

“I urge all livestock owners to follow the eHub to receive regular notification of new resources as they are added.”