“Strongest ever” foot and mouth disease screening in place as Indonesian border remains open

It’s an outbreak threat that has border security and the livestock industry on high alert, but farming groups are in support of the government’s decision to leave borders with Indonesia open.

Viral fragments of foot and mouth disease (FMD) were identified in beef products that a traveller returning from Indonesia failed to declare, as well as in imported pork floss products stocked in Melbourne CBD retailers, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt revealed last Wednesday.

The affected pork floss products also contained a trace of African swine fever. The items were seized from a number of retailers and one Melbourne warehouse upon detection in routine inspections.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s advice to those importing food into Australia is to ask suppliers for evidence of food safety certification, results of product testing, ingredient information documentation and product specification sheets and sample labels.

The National Farmers Federation has called for the urgent implementation of 100% screening of passengers from high risk areas and increased resources to Australia’s biosecurity systems.

In a statement, Federation president Fiona Simson says the FMD trace detections were an “example of the system working”, but says resources to Australia’s biosecurity systems and at-border measures on home soil must be ramped...