The Australian Government has ramped up its efforts to prevent foot and mouth disease (FMD) spreading to Australia.

All passengers returning from Indonesia are now being risk assessed by border officials.

All airports that receive direct flights from Indonesia will begin to roll out sanitisation foot mats this week.

Biosecurity Response Zones have been established at international airports.

Last week, viral fragments of FMD were detected in pork floss which had been imported from China.

Subsequently, all mail incoming from Indonesia and China is now being screened for meat products.

Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said it is great to see the message about the seriousness of this disease overseas getting through to travellers.

“It is not hard to make the right declarations when coming back from Bali and our $80 billion agriculture industry relies on people doing the right thing,” Mr Watt said.

“We will continue to put more measures in place, in line with expert biosecurity advice, to keep this disease out.”

The introduction of sanitisation foot mats at airports had been called for by Shadow Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, among others, for some weeks.

Mr Littleproud has also called for the immediate offer of 3D X-ray technology at Indonesian airports.

Shaughn Morgan, co-CEO eastAUSmilk, advocates for all other shoes being carried by passengers to be inspected and disinfected as necessary.

He also believes travel restrictions would be a sensible approach.

“The government must immediately reconsider imposing travel restrictions to areas that are close to Australia and which are FMD infected,” he said.

“This may only be needed for a short period of time but it will enable those nations to vaccinate their cows and thus control the outbreaks.”

This article appeared in On Our Selection News, 28 July 2022.