FMD found in goods from China, Indonesia

The devastating foot and mouth disease, which threatens to decimate Australia’s livestock industry, has been detected in goods coming into Australia from both Indonesia and China.

Foot and mouth disease infects cloven-hoofed animals and does not affect the health of humans. It can be carried on animal products, including meat and leather, and people can carry it on their shoes, clothes or in their noses, where it can survive for up to 24 hours.

If one positive case of foot and mouth were detected on an Australian farm it could shut the $27 billion (NZ$29.8b) livestock export trade down for months or even years. The federal government has estimated the total cost of a major outbreak at $80b.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt revealed yesterday that a beef product containing the foot and mouth disease virus had been detected at an Australian airport, brought by a passenger from Indonesia. Pork products that were for sale in Melbourne were also found during routine inspections to be infected with both foot and mouth disease and African swine fever – another livestock disease that has not previously circulated among animals in Australia.

‘‘We have detected Foot and Mouth Disease and African swine fever viral fragments in a small number of pork products for sale in the Melbourne CBD that were imported from China,’’ Watt said yesterday. ‘‘Several other pork products for retail sale have tested positive for African swine fever viral fragments. I’m advised that all products now of this kind have been seized from all linked supermarkets and a warehouse in Melbourne as well.

‘‘In addition to this, a passenger travelling from Indonesia has in recent days been intercepted with a beef product that they didn’t declare, which tested positive for foot and mouth disease viral fragments.’’

An outbreak on Indonesia’s main island of Java has spread to Bali, which is visited by more than 1 million Australians a year, ramping up the risk of a first-ever outbreak in livestock Down Under.