Stud breeders are urged to preserve Australia's best beef bloodlines in case FMD affects the $32 billion red meat sector.
An incursion would mean millions of animals could be destroyed, undoing generations of breeding programs designed to produce the best animals for sale in domestic and international markets.
Dr Wise said artificial breeding techniques are expensive, but breeders were weighing up the costs against the risks. Dr Wise said while breeders would have to make careful choices about what they preserve, it could be an important safeguard against all manner of biosecurity threats. Hamish Goldie rebuilt herds from some frozen genetics but mostly from fellow breeders unaffected by the 2001 UK FMD outbreak."Not that many people had any plans in place to store genetics and maybe looking back it's something we should have thought of," he said.The Goldie family produce champion Charolais bulls like Goldies Hotspur nearly 20 years after a total herd wipe-out.
Alice and Rick Greenup are not sure freezing a portion of their cattle's genetics will give them the diversity they need.
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