Trade has come to a halt as Indonesia reports more LSD infections.
The Federal Government confirmed this week that eight more Australian cattle tested positive for lumpy skin disease after arriving in Indonesia, where the disease is widespread.
The development, which comes despite extensive recent testing of 1000 cattle in Australia that found no trace of the disease, is set to halt further trade of Australian cattle to Indonesia until Australia's LSD status is resolved.
According to Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry, Indonesian officials informed their Australian counterparts on Saturday afternoon that eight additional positive tests had been recorded in cattle of Australian origin following their arrival in Indonesia.
Lumpy skin disease is a highly contagious viral infection spread by biting insects. It was discovered in Indonesia in March 2022 and has since spread rapidly throughout the archipelago, including the major islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Java.
The eight cattle tested positive for LSD after arriving in Indonesia were exported from three registered establishments in Australia, two near the port of Broome and one in the Northern Territory.
The three facilities are in addition to the four pre-export quarantine yards in northern Australia that Indonesia suspended in late July after Australian cattle handled by those facilities tested positive for lumpy skin disease upon arrival in Indonesia.
According to DAFF, the three registered establishments involved in the weekend announcement were not technically suspended by Indonesia.
However, DAFF has informed industry that Indonesia has imposed significant new conditions on the three export yards in question, including the requirement that all livestock quarantined in the depots for shipment to Indonesia be swabbed and blood tested for LSD.
These requirements, as well as the additional time required for animals to be held in yards awaiting results, could add up to around $200 per head, making use of those yards commercially prohibitive for exporters.
Given that the northern Australia cattle trade to Indonesia typically relies on about ten key registered quarantine yards across the region, and seven of them are no longer operational, it is expected that the trade will effectively grind to a halt until the stalemate over Australia's LSD status is resolved.
Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt participated in a teleconference with industry representatives on Sunday morning, according to a member update distributed yesterday by Cattle Australia. During the call, Minister Watt reiterated that random testing in live export yards across northern Australia since 2022, including the three new yards now implicated, has shown that Australia is free of LSD.
“We remain confident of Australia’s LSD-free status, and it is in the interests of both countries that trade be normalised in the least trade restrictive way,” departmental spokesperson Dr Beth Cookson, Acting Chief Veterinary Officer of Australia, said.
“Australia is confident of the robust systems it has for the monitoring of our animal disease status.
“Australia is working closely with Indonesia and Malaysia to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
“The Australian Government and departmental officials are very aware of how important the live cattle trade is to Australia, and particularly to northern Australia.”
Indonesia is Australia’s largest market for live cattle, with more than 300,000 head exported there annually and the ongoing issue has the potential to decimate the $1bn-a-year industry.
Dr Cookson confirmed in a separate statement released to the media on Sunday that recent testing of cattle in response to Indonesia's concerns about lumpy skin disease resulted in no trade of the disease in Australia. LSD has never been detected in Australia, and we are still free of it.
She stated that the department, with the assistance of the governments of Western Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory, as well as industry, had conducted rapid diagnostic testing on over 1000 cattle across northern Australia.
This occurred over a 2800 km stretch of land in Western Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory.
Despite the fact that Australia has never had a positive LSD test, Indonesian authorities have continued to point to the disease's incubation period, which the World Organisation for Animal Health lists as potentially being as long as 28 days, as evidence that the cattle were infected in Australia.
(Source: Beef Central)