New Zealand, Australia credit vigilance for keeping herds healthy

Quarantine officers Maninder Singh, left, and Linda Schuett inspect undeclared food items carried by a traveler arriving at Sydney Airport on Thursday March 15

(CNN) -- New Zealand has never had a case of foot and mouth disease.

The last time the disease was reported in Australia was in 1872.

Agriculture plays a big part in both countries' economies, and both nations have big stakes in keeping the potentially disastrous virus away from their farms.

New Zealand -- just slightly larger than the United Kingdom, with a population of fewer than 4 million people -- is home to 47 million sheep and nearly 10 million cattle. Agriculture accounts for 16.6 percent of the country's gross domestic product, according to 1999-2000 figures released by Meat New Zealand, a trade organization.

New Zealand claims to be the world's largest exporter of lamb, dairy products, and venison in figures supplied by the country's embassy in Washington, D.C. Nearly 10 percent of the world's beef exports come from New Zealand, an embassy spokesman said.

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Brian Lynch, chief executive of New Zealand's Meat Industry Association, says 80 percent of all the beef produced in his country is exported. Over half of New Zealand's income from exports comes from meat, Lynch says.

Dr. Bill Jolly, chief animal agricultural officer at New Zealand's Washington embassy says domestic farm animals were not introduced into his country until the early 1900s.

"We don't have thousands of years of experience with animals," he says, a fact which Jolly says helps explain New Zealand's success in keeping its shores free of foot and mouth disease.

The climate is temperate, Jolly points out, allowing animals to be grazed in pastures virtually year round. Barns and feed lots are often breeding grounds for the disease, Jolly says.

In addition, according to Jolly, New Zealand livestock are not fed supplements made of animal products, another common source of foot and mouth infection.

But a lot of credit for New Zealand's status as a nation that's free of the disease has to go, Jolly says, to New Zealand's aggressive approach to all animal diseases.

"We have the best animal health system in the world," he says. "Agriculture is the backbone of our economy, and we have to offer our trading partners the highest standards."

The country's Agriculture Department operates an exhaustive spraying program for both people and vehicles entering the country.

"We take no chances," Jolly observes. "That's how we've stayed FMD free all these years."

New Zealand plays host to a steady influx of visitors from Asia, where some countries have experienced recent foot and mouth disease outbreaks. The embassy's Jolly says every piece of arriving cargo and luggage is X-rayed for the presence of fruit and meat products from abroad. The X-ray technology is augmented by a large pack of "sniffer dogs" -- beagles especially trained to sniff out contraband farm products.

Barry O'Neil, the Agriculture Ministry's assistant director general, says the intense scrutiny isn't limited to luggage and cargo. Each of the 50 million pieces of mail reaching the country each year from abroad is X-rayed and inspected by sniffer dogs, O'Neil says.

Filing a false declaration with Agriculture authorities can bring an instant fine of 200 New Zealand dollars. And deliberate attempts to smuggle foodstuffs into New Zealand can bring much higher penalties, O'Neil says -- prison time and fines up to 100,000 New Zealand dollars.

O'Neil estimates that 90 percent of "risky" plants, seeds, pests and food items are intercepted before they enter the country. The goal is 100 percent, he says.

Asked to compare New Zealand's biosecurity control efforts with the "war on drugs" waged by some countries, O'Neil says, "Biosecurity breaches are more dangerous. Drugs, once arrived, are eventually consumed, and they are gone. Biosecurity hazards continue to multiply unless they are eradicated."

Ordinary New Zealanders are well aware that agriculture is the engine driving their economic train, and that the economy could easily derail if foot and mouth disease gained a toehold.

The country's Agriculture minister, Jim Sutton says, "If the disease did get established in New Zealand, we estimate that the standard of living of New Zealanders would drop by at least 25 percent."

Dr. Phil Corrigan, veterinary counselor at the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C., credits "awareness and vigilance" for much of his country's success in preventing foot and mouth disease.

"Our veterinarians and livestock industry have always been careful. They are even more so now," he says, "since the terrible foot and mouth outbreaks in the U.K., France, Germany and other countries."

Corrigan says Australian health authorities publish detailed manuals instructing each segment of the livestock industry -- from farmers to truck drivers to slaughterhouse workers -- on how to deal with the threat posed by foot and mouth disease.

There's a comprehensive contingency plan -- called "AusVetPlan" -- for combating outbreaks of foot and mouth and other diseases should they occur. Farmers, health workers and other livestock personnel hold annual drills to practice disease control.

The Australian Embassy's Corrigan explained how a typical drill works.

After a simulated emergency is declared -- the discovery of a simulated case of foot and mouth disease, for instance -- quarantine zones are declared. Veterinarians and livestock inspectors descend on the affected area. Traffic is curtailed. Social and sporting events are canceled -- just as they would be in case of a real emergency.

All livestock in the affected area is inspected for signs of the simulated "disease." In addition, any meat products shipped from the area of the drill during the past 14 days are traced and their intended recipients notified. (Such shipments are often located aboard ships on the high seas.)

Australia's preparations for animal disease outbreaks aren't limited to drills and simulation. The nation currently has 20 veterinarians and a number of other animal health workers in the United Kingdom assisting efforts to contain foot and mouth disease there.

The effort is "humanitarian," Corrigan says. "But it's also good real life training for our own people."

It's easy to see why such efforts are justified in a country like Australia.

Meat plays a major role in the Australian economy. With 125 million sheep, Australia accounts for fully one-fourth of the world's sheep exports, Corrigan says. The nation has 26 million cattle and 5 million pigs.

The country is the largest source of exported beef and sheep meat products for consumers in the U.S. and Asia, he says.

An outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Australia or New Zealand -- followed by the requisite quarantines, slaughtering and burning that health officials say is the only way to contain the disease -- would have a deep impact on the economies of not only Australia and New Zealand, but on the two countries' trading partners as well.

New Zealand exports agricultural products to over 100 countries. Australia sends farm products to at least 130 overseas markets.

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Australia Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry
New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Biosecurity Authority

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