The risk of the devastating foot and mouth livestock disease entering Australia is so great that Agriculture Minister Murray Watt won't rule out mandatory border checks on every tourist returning from Bali
The highly contagious foot and mouth disease, which would devastate Australia’s agriculture industry and rural communities, has been detected in Bali.
An outbreak on Indonesia’s main island of Java has spread to the popular tourist island of Bali, which is visited by more than one million Australians a year, ramping up the risk of a first-ever outbreak Down Under. Watt rejected calls from the federal Nationals leader David Littleproud to set up disease-killing chemical foot baths for Bali passengers, arguing the chemicals used can harm peoples’ skin and would not prevent the disease from spreading from shoes carried in their luggage.
If one positive case of foot and mouth was detected on an Australian farm it could shut the $27 billion livestock export trade down for months or even years. The federal government has estimated the total cost of a major outbreak at $80 billion.
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