KUALA LUMPUR – Those heading to Australia will have to leave behind meat products as the country has banned individuals from importing meat in their luggage from 70 countries faced with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
Australia’s Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the move is to minimise the risk of the disease from spreading among the local livestock.
The government is also mulling increasing fines for anyone found to be in breach of the ban.
“If someone doesn’t declare this kind of a product and is caught they can currently be fined up to A$2,600 (RM7,880).
“The reality is, especially in a multicultural community that we now are in Australia, there are particular communities that consume highly processed sausages or other forms of meat, pork floss, things like that,” he was quoted as saying by ABC News.
“So it’s a relatively small amount, but it’s one of the higher-risk ways of this disease coming in and that’s why we just can’t take that risk any longer.
“Someone might bring in a product that contains live viral fragments, they eat most of that product and they throw you a little bit in the scraps bin from one of their animals, and then the animal consumes that, and then it gets in the animal food chain.
“We’ve certainly seen outbreaks occur that way overseas and we want to make sure it doesn’t happen here.”
Currently, Australia is FMD-free but an outbreak will cost the agriculture industry an estimated A$80 billion over 10 years.
In May, Indonesia reported it had its first FMD outbreak, resulting in Australia’s Agriculture Department implementing tougher import rules and certifications.
Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia have taken measures to curb the disease especially after Indonesia reported its first few cases.
FMD outbreaks are detected across Asia, the Middle East, South America and parts of Africa, and the highly contagious disease affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and pigs. – The Vibes, September 8, 2022
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