Foot and mouth disease on our doorstep

UK outbreak was ‘soul-destroying’ 

By the time FMD had been detected in the UK it was far too late to control it, according to the former National Farmers Union south-west UK director Anthony Gibson.

It emerged in February 2001 in an Essex piggery, right at the time on the UK farming calendar when large numbers of sheep were being moved around the country.

“So we were playing catch-up when the disease had probably been in the country for the best part of a month, before we knew it was in the south-west as well,” Mr Gibson said

“That was what made the outbreak so difficult to control and so devastating in its consequences.”

Caught on the hop, authorities in the UK adopted the ‘slaughter-out’ approach to controlling the virus.

“There were plumes of smoke all over the place, an awful acrid smell, and because of the way the disease was handled, thousands and thousands of animals were slaughtered trying to stop the spread of the disease, without anyone considering the logistics of moving their carcasses,” Mr Gibson said.

“So you had farmers with 150 cows piled up in their yard for weeks on end.”

In addition to the financial devastation, the methods used to fight the outbreak also left farmers psychologically damaged.
“To family farms in the west of England, the livestock are almost part of the family, and to have to watch them being slaughtered, when they didn’t have the disease — this was precautionary — and then to have them lying around rotting in the farmyard for weeks on end was just soul-destroying,” Mr Gibson said.

The UK’s Chief Veterinary Officer, Professor Christine Middlemiss, was one of more than 2,000 vets working with farmers during the outbreak, and often had to deliver the heartbreaking news that their herds or flocks would have to be culled.

As the case numbers rose, Professor Middlemiss also worked at Great Horton, where at a nearby airfield animals were gathered en masse to be culled.

“We weren’t asked to do that for long, because that was particularly harrowing work,” she recalls.

At the top of the list of lessons learned for both Professor Middlemiss and Mr Gibson was the importance of clear and effective communication as the crisis rolled on.

Mr Gibson described the flow of information from authorities to farmers during the outbreak as “dreadful”.

“Letting people know what’s going on is absolutely crucial because there is nothing worse than not knowing if you feel your animals and your livelihood are at risk,” he said.

Professor Middlemiss was able to communicate that lesson to Australian farmers directly when she served as NSW Chief Vet in 2016 and 2017.

“I was asked at a foot-and-mouth exercise in Bega, ‘What was the biggest learning I had from the whole experience?’,” she said.

“And people think I’m going to say something really technology-focused, but it was communication. 

“Communication at all levels is just so important, because the thing that gets people most anxious is not knowing what’s going on.”

Australia’s plan

Were an outbreak to occur in Australia, the response would be led by the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment and the relevant state agriculture departments.

The chief veterinary officer (CVO) in the state or territory in which the outbreak occurs is responsible for developing an Emergency Animal Disease Response Plan for the particular outbreak.

The response to FMD is laid out in a nationally agreed response strategy called AUSVETPLAN, which includes two options: to slaughter-out the disease, or control it with vaccinations.

State and territory biosecurity authorities routinely practise how they would enact these biosecurity plans.

The earliest parts of the plan, following confirmation of FMD, include a national livestock standstill, followed by contact tracing of animals that may have come into contact with the infected flock or herd. 

The slaughter-out approach is the fastest way to eliminate the disease, but has a significant impact on livestock numbers.

However, the vaccination strategy would see Australia locked out of export markets for a longer period of time.

“If we are very confident that we have detected very early in the outbreak, the location of the outbreak, and that there has been no movement away from those areas, then it is likely that we would choose a slaughter option, because that would very quickly bring that outbreak to a close and very quickly return us to international trade,” Dr Schipp said.

“But if we were in the situation, such as Indonesia is in at the moment where they found simultaneous outbreaks at opposite ends of the country, then obviously a slow route approach is more appropriate.”

Australia maintains a bank of vaccines that can be rolled out if an outbreak occurs.
Australian scientists are not permitted to work with live FMD viral material, so much of that work is conducted overseas.
The CSIRO has been working closely with a laboratory in Thailand to look at how well the vaccines in the Australian stockpile would protect against the viruses circulating in south-east Asia.

And it has developed a tool for tracing the virus during an outbreak, using a similar method to the one employed to trace COVID-19 infections.

“We have an application that can help vets trace the virus between premises and look at the patterns of transmission, in near real-time,” Dr Vosloo said. 

“It can also consider how the climatic conditions can affect spread, by looking at wind direction, humidity and temperature, telling us whether it is probable the disease could spread from Farm A to Farm B on the wind.”

Keeping it out

Australia’s air and sea ports are considered to be the most likely pathways for entry of most biosecurity threats.

A group of experts led by Dr Schipp found Australia had a 42 per cent chance of a major animal biosecurity outbreak within the next four years, and a one-in-10 chance of a foot-and-mouth outbreak.

“We are planning to re-do that assessment in the coming weeks, because we believe that the risk has significantly increased with the incursion of foot-and-mouth disease, and its widespread establishment in Indonesia,” Dr Schipp said.

Every year authorities intercept tonnes of raw and processed meat and animal products that could potentially be carrying the disease.
“For that reason we have a large focus at airports on food items that people are bringing in, but also looking at things like clothing and footwear that’s been worn on farms,” Dr Schipp said.
“Other routes of concern are returning livestock vessels, so we’re very stringent on ensuring they are clean before they come back to Australia.
“Most importantly now, Australia is working with Indonesian authorities to contain the virus, and supplying vaccines.”

For the past 12 years, the CSIRO has been working with laboratories overseas to keep tabs on what diseases are circulating in South East Asia.

And the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness is also frequently receiving samples from around Australia, sent by vets who have observed animals showing FMD symptoms.

“These samples are sent to the lab for exclusion testing, so we can confirm that although the symptoms look like foot-and-mouth disease, they are not confirmed cases,” Dr Vosloo said.

In addition, the CSIRO and DAWE have collaborated to develop a model for how the disease would spread through Australia if it did make it past the border.

“So it can tell us how it would spread if we had an introduction of the virus, and it lets us look at how various control options would pan out, and how quickly could we get it under control,” Dr Vosloo said.

“Recently we’ve been able to improve that model, to include post-outbreak surveillance which can speed up the time it takes to prove the virus has been eliminated.”

Vigilance essential

Professor Middlemiss said Australian livestock producers had to remain vigilant as cases emerged in Indonesia.

“It really is the case that you potentially, on your farm, could have the first case. Work with the vets and the government — it can be a really worrying time if you’re the first place that’s got a disease,” she said.

“But not to report it, and to not be vigilant, ultimately for you and the wider industry it’ll have more impact.”

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