Indonesia has now declared foot and mouth disease to be endemic, shifting into a long-term management strategy rather than an emergency response.
However, that does not mean it has 'given up the ghost' and will stop control measures, senior government biosecurity experts said.
Speaking in an industry webinar hosted by the National Farmers' Federation, the assistant secretary animal division biosecurity at the Department of Agriculture Dr Brant Smith said Indonesia was still working towards an eradication goal, although he did say considerable effort would be required to reach that outcome.
The endemic declaration was not unexpected and, further, Australia had strong measures in place to defend against the disease, he said.
"FMD has been around for a hundred years.We have had people coming in and out of FMD countries for many years," Dr Smith said.
Indonesia currently has 610,399 cases of FMD in 27 of its 38 provinces.
On the LSD front, most cases this year have been reported in Java. There are a total of 38,169 cases.
However, Dr Smith said the true extent of infection was unclear, as cases had probably been under-reported.
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mRNA vaccine work
Meat & Livestock Australia has funded a project to produce and test mRNA vaccines that can be rapidly mass produced in Australia in the event of a lumpy skin disease outbreak.
Program manager for animal wellbeing Michael Laurence said the work would develop a mRNA vaccine pipeline initially for LSD, but potentially for other emergency diseases.
"No LSD vaccines are registered for use in Australia yet. While some killed vaccines exist overseas, the path to registration in Australia for traditionally-produced is longer than that of an mRNA vaccine," Mr Laurence said.
It took just a few months to make the vaccine constructs which is a very short timeline compared to traditional vaccine development.
"The LSD vaccine construct is now being tested for efficacy in animals. By the end of this year, we will know if this vaccine will work in ruminants," he said.
An mRNA vaccine would not allow Australia to vaccinate the herd as a preemptive mechanism, Australian deputy chief veterinary officer Dr Beth Cookson, based in Cairns, said.
"International standards don't differentiate between different types of vaccines - Australia would lose its disease-free status if it took that path," she explained.
Rather, the technology could be used in a rapid response to an outbreak, enabling eradication faster.
"Further, the nature of mRNA vaccines enables the development of laboratory tests to distinguish the immune response in vaccinated animals from natural infection. Success of this project might provide a pilot vaccine suitable for use in Australia in less than two years," Mr Laurence said.
Shan Goodwin
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
