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 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.”
LSD can infect cattle and water buffalo, causing painful skin lesions which cover the body and erupt. Other disease symptoms include fever, watery eyes, loss of appetite and a reluctance to move.
FMD infects a wide range of cloven-hoofed species including cattle, pigs, sheep, buffalo, deer, camelids, and goats. Infected animals may show fever, drooling and be reluctant to move. Animals can suffer from blisters on the mouth, snout, tongue, lips or between and above the hooves on the feet.
An FMD outbreak in Australia could be caused by food contaminated with FMD virus being illegally imported and fed to pigs.
Only feed fruit, vegetables, grains, and commercial livestock feed to pigs.
If you’re aware of prohibited feed being fed to pigs, report it to Biosecurity Queensland on 13 25 23.
Make sure you have biosecurity measures in place on your property and that your biosecurity plan is up to date.
Check your biosecurity entity registration and contact details are up to date. Registration helps ensure animals and contact livestock owners can be quickly located if there’s an animal disease emergency in Queensland. Visit qld.gov.au/BiosecurityRegistration
To learn more, visit business.qld.gov.au and search for ‘lumpy skin disease’ and ‘foot-and-mouth disease’.
