Researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU) have called for improved collaborative efforts between cattle farmers and government to strengthen biosecurity in Australia.
Australia has maintained an enviable disease-free status and a reputation for quality agricultural produce. The country’s agricultural sector is worth an estimated $51 billion in exports and trade, $50 billion in tourism, $5.7 trillion in environmental assets and provides more than 1.6 million jobs.
ECU’s Deborah Evans said that not sharing a border with other nations has provided an advantage, however Australia’s biosecurity and border-based measures have played a significant role in achieving this reputation.
“We have excellent pre-border measures, and our systems at the border are very comprehensive, despite the challenges brought about by increased shipping and an increasing number of passengers and visitors to Australia. However, we could certainly improve our post-border measures to enhance biological preparedness in the agricultural sector,” said Evans.
“Given the value to the Australian economy and the potential impact of any outbreak of disease, security measures to prevent malicious biosecurity threats are critical for the agricultural sector and should form part of our wider national security strategy.”
Evans' research identified the need for recommended biosecurity practices at an industry and primary production level to embed security theory and principles to account for potential malicious actors. She emphasised that recommendations for security practices must be balanced and in consultation with farming communities.
“We need to ensure that security practices which form part of biosecurity recommendations are practical and feasible for farmers and don’t unnecessarily restrict operations. Farmers can’t just go out and install urban-style security measures across a 1,000-acre farm.
“Agriculture is a unique environment, and every farm and farming community is unique, so we need a collaborative effort with input from all stakeholders, and most importantly the support of government to shoulder any financial burden of implementing security on farms,” said Evans.
The current recommendations around biosecurity, which includes vaccinating cattle and ensuring that farmers comply with the National Livestock Identification Scheme that allows for animal tracing, go a long way towards addressing many biosecurity concerns. However, there are still a number of measures that could be implemented to improve biosecurity.
“To date, no recommendations have been made for cattle production enterprises to implement security technologies, practices or procedures such as access control, security cameras and the vetting or screening of staff. These are just some of the things that can be done to prevent and detect unwanted parties from trespassing onto farms.
“We also need to provide farmers and farming enterprises with support in terms of how to go about implementing recommendations, and scaling these up in times of need. It is important to work with farmers to find out what is practical, what is reasonable and what is scalable in the event of an outbreak,” said Evans.
Biosecurity is a critical part of managing Australian food supplies with broader food security dependent on robust supply chains.
“COVID has taught us some valuable lessons in terms of managing supply chains. A lot of pressure was placed on supply chains during the pandemic, which fortunately did not affect animal health,” said Evans.
“However, we can benefit from applying these lessons to agriculture and anticipate how our supply chains could be impacted in the event of an outbreak in cattle or other livestock production industries.
“Increasing the robustness of our biosecurity system through the implementation of security practices on farms can help to reduce biological threats to agriculture. Supporting our farmers to implement and scale-up security can help prevent and detect outbreaks and minimise the impact to supply chains and food security in future,” she said.
