Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - Following an outbreak of the disease in Indonesia, Australia announced on Wednesday that it has increased...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - Following an outbreak of the disease in Indonesia, Australia announced on Wednesday that it has increased protection against foot and mouth disease at its international airports.
As part of an expansion of Australia's biosecurity safeguards, travellers arriving from Indonesia will now be required to walk on sanitation foot mats at airports, according to the government.
A citric acid solution will be present in the matting to loosen any dirt off the shoe sole and coat it with the acid.
According to Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, the action was taken after foot and mouth viral particles were found in beef products that just arrived in Australia from China and Indonesia.
Watt stated that during normal tests, "we have found foot and mouth disease and African swine fever virus particles in a small number of pig items for sale in the Melbourne CBD that were imported from China."
"Additionally, a traveller from Indonesia was recently detained with unreported beef that tested positive for foot and mouth disease virus pieces," the official continued.
He claimed that because these viral bits are not alive, they cannot spread.
Watt added that Australia is still free of foot and mouth disease despite these findings.
Cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs are all affected by the highly contagious foot and mouth disease, but people are not at risk. A large-scale foot and mouth outbreak in Australia is predicted by government modelling to have a direct economic impact of approximately A$80 billion ($55.3 billion).
According to government statistics, more than 3,400 animals have been slaughtered and more than 317,000 animals have been infected across 21 provinces in Indonesia, mostly on the two most populous islands, Java and Sumatra.
$1 is equal to 1.4465 Australian dollars.
