To prevent disease, Australian visitors should be banned from visiting Bali for six months

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

Despite the fact that it only opened to Australian tourists in March, industry experts have urged for a tourist embargo to help curb the spread of a disease.

 

Following the rapid development of foot and mouth disease, a global agriculture analyst believes Australians should be barred from visiting Bali for six months.

An outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Indonesia was reported to the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (AWE) earlier this month.

More than 2000 livestock are thought to be sick in North Sumatra and East Java provinces.

 

Indonesia had been FMD-free since 1986, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health, which recognised the condition in 1990.

Despite the fact that Australia is free of FMD, industry experts believe that tourists should be barred from visiting Bali, despite the island's recent opening to visitors.

 

According to Yahoo News, Global AgriTrends expert Simon Quilty is concerned about Indonesia's "poor response" to the outbreak and believes the country should act soon because the disease can be spread through clothing and shoes.

"As severe as it seems, as a country, we seriously need to consider preventing people from going to Bali," he added, adding that we are building disease "highways" via each of our airports where return passengers from Indonesia pass through.

Mr Quilty believes that unless Indonesia takes immediate action in the next eight to twelve months, the disease will spread to other parts of the country, including East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

 

In the absence of intimate contact between animals or the importation of contaminated items, the risk to Australia, according to the AWE, remains low.

While the risk of an invasion in Australia is modest, the spread of FMD to Indonesia has increased the odds of an incursion in Australia, according to Australia's chief veterinary officer Mark Schipp.

"Two years ago, we predicted that the danger would be 9% during the next five years," he stated.

 

"Given the proximity of Indonesia, the trade we have with Indonesia in transporting live cattle up there, and the risk of returning stockmen and travellers from Indonesia, I would expect that risk to have at least increased."

Anyone returning to Australia after visiting a farm or dealing with livestock outside of Australia should declare it upon arrival so that actions can be taken to eliminate the risk of transmission through contaminated clothing or unclean shoes.