AS the risk of animal diseases entering into Western Australia increases due to a steady rise in the goods and people moving in and out of the State, the livestock industry's biosecurity defences will be boosted by a $32.6 million cash injection in the upcoming State Budget.
To help protect WA's agricultural sector from serious threats such as foot and mouth disease (FMD) and lumpy skin disease (LSD), the government has allocated $10.4m to increase the State's ability to respond to an animal disease outbreak.
This will create 14 new full-time positions at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), increasing the size of WA's livestock biosecurity and emergency response teams and will be used to fund career vets, veterinary pathologists, scientists and epidemiologists across the agency.
Making the funding announcement at David Slade's sheep and cropping farm at Mt Barker last Thursday, Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis said an additional $22.2m would assist the industry in its transition to the mandatory sheep and goat electronic identification system (eID), required to be completed by January 1, 2025.
The eIDs will replace the National Livestock Identification Systems (NLIS) use of visual tags to record the movement of Australia's sheep and goat herds.
WA's livestock producers will be able to access additional funding for the 'Tag Incentive Payment' to assist them in their adoption of the new tracking system, which records each individual animal's movements and aims to strengthen the traceability of the nation's livestock.
The funding package will also support supply chain infrastructure for the new eID system.Minister Jarvis said the investments would enable the sector to be on the front foot when dealing with potential threats to the livestock industry.
"The threat of FMD and lumpy skin disease has certainly played into (this investment) and it's not just those diseases," Ms Jarvis said.
"The reality is, the risk of animal diseases is increasing.
"We have more international travel, we have people still bringing animal products into Australia illegally and we have shipping containers bringing in pests and diseases...the biosecurity cost across Australia is going up.
"There is a national agreement that we will move to electronic ear tags on January 1, 2025, so by making this announcement WA farmers can get ready, we can get infrastructure in place and make sure the systems are all fully tested and ready for that implementation at a national level."
Managing his 7000 hectare sheep and cropping farm with wife Lyn and son Andrew, Mr Slade said they had utilised eID'S on their 14,000 head of sheep over the past 3-4 years.
From a biosecurity perspective, he said the eID system would be much more effective than visual tags in tracking an FMD incursion on Australian soils, if one were to occur, and would also provide the sector with a greater and quicker ability to prove it was free of the disease to its export markets.
"Australia is in the position where, if we did get an outbreak of any of these diseases, the countries we are exporting to would close us down immediately, for both cattle and sheep," Mr Slade said.
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"With a paper based system it would take a whole lot longer to prove that you're clear from FMD."
Mr Slade said there were also many benefits of using the electronic sheep tags, purely from a production perspective.
"We can track the weight gain of our animals through the feedlot as well as their genetics and we can draft the mobs based on different eID traits," Mr Slade said.
"You can read elite sheep instantly and it's far more accurate than a visual based tag system."
Mr Slade said the new eID system would also be effective in keeping the State's sheep flocks closed from things like footrot disease, worm resistance and lice.
"If you wait five years, you've lost your advantage in efficiency, so we like to adopt new technologies fairly quickly because it makes it worthwhile," he said.
WAFarmers chief executive Trevor Whittington welcomed the minister's efforts to get additional funding to help bolster the biosecurity defences of the State's livestock industry.
"Even after last year's FMD outbreak, with the other states pouring money into biosecurity, former Minister (Alannah) MacTiernan still could not increase funding fast enough to keep up with inflation, prioritising climate change over biosecurity," Mr Whittington said.
"This budget's linking of more funding for the rollout of electronic ear tags and more funding for the front line makes sense, particularly with FMD now endemic in Indonesia, which means the risk of it arriving here is real."
Mr Whittington said this increased risk had been exemplified by Perth flights to Bali racing back to pre-pandemic levels, creating more opportunities for FMD to be carried into the State.
