An Agriculture Ministry official examines livestock during a vaccination campaign to prevent the spread of a the highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease at a farm in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Thursday, July 21, 2022. Thousands of cattle are covered in blisters from highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia, sounding the alarm for the country, its Southeast Asian neighbors and Australia. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
PRIME Minister Jacinda Ardern warned an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Indonesia could cost thousands of New Zealand jobs, as her nation and neighbouring Australia stepped up border biosecurity restrictions.
“While not a threat to humans, it would devastate our national herd,” Ardern told reporters in Wellington.
Ardern warned that the disease, first detected in Indonesia in April, has the potential to threaten up to 100,000 jobs in New Zealand’s agriculture sector.
Foot and mouth disease is a severe, highly contagious viral disease of livestock.
It can have a significant economic impact, especially on a country like New Zealand which exported around 17 million sheep and two million cattle this year.
A foot and mouth outbreak has ripped through two Indonesian provinces, killing thousands of cows and infecting hundreds of thousands more.
Ardern said New Zealand has never had an outbreak – and wants to keep it that way by tightening border restrictions.
“We want to make sure that we’ve got all our settings in place to protect ourselves,” she added.
There are no direct flights from Indonesia to New Zealand, but Ardern said it is important to stop it from entering the country, potentially via Australian tourists who had visited South-East Asia.
Travellers from Indonesia will not be allowed to bring meat into New Zealand, baggage will be screened and there will be disinfectant mats at airports to clean footwear.
In Australia, parcels and baggage from China and Indonesia are now being checked and there are also foot mats at airports in response to the disease.
Canberra has so far rejected opposition calls to close the border to Indonesia, but further measures have not been ruled out. — AFP
