FMD is a highly contagious animal disease that affects all cloven-hoofed animals including cattle, sheep, goats, deer, pigs, alpacas, llamas and camels. Cloven-hoofed animals are those with a split toe.

Fortunately, FMD is not a human health risk and does not affect horses, dogs or cats. FMD is exotic to Australia and is one of our greatest biosecurity risks. Australia is currently free of FMD, so an incursion would have severe consequences for Australia’s animal health and trade. An uncontrolled outbreak could lead to immediate closure of our meat export markets for more than a year. Control costs have been estimated at more than $80 billion over 10 years.

An FMD outbreak is not just a threat to the Australian livestock sector. It will impact other agricultural industries, particularly through supply chain demand.