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Issue 52 | May 2009
(L-R): Victorian Agriculture Minister
Joe Helper MP, AAHL Director, Martyn Jeggo,
Hugh Millar and Simon Ramsay
Last month, the State Minister for Agriculture Joe Helper MP and Victorian Farmers' Federation President Simon Ramsay, visited Livestock Industries' Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) to learn more about the lab that recently found itself as the subject of national debate.
In recent months, the issue of whether live foot and mouth disease (FMD) virus should be imported into Australia has created much discussion amongst Australia's livestock industries and scientists.
Concerns have been expressed from the beef and other livestock industries, over the recommendation of the recent Beale Review of Australia's quarantine and biosecurity arrangements. The review suggests that the import of virus samples – for use in laboratory diagnostic research and capacity building for exotic disease pathogens – should be allowed under strict permit to high security facilities such as AAHL.
Accompanied by Victoria's Chief Veterinary Officer Hugh Millar, Minister Helper and Mr Ramsay met with AAHL's Martyn Jeggo, Deborah Middleton and Ross Lunt, where Mr Ramsay raised the Beale Review recommendations.
Martyn said CSIRO recognised the livestock industries' legitimate concerns about importing live FMD virus and reiterated there are no plans to seek importation approval. He stressed that should this change in the future, there will be wide consultation with the livestock sector and other concerned parties.
'In many cases it is possible to work with inactivated virus and scientists at AAHL have been doing this for many years to ensure an effective response to any disease outbreak', Martyn said. 'To rapidly develop the best diagnostic tools and to understand how the virus would affect Australian animals, for example merino sheep, scientists do need to work with live virus.'
This led to discussions focussed on AAHL's strategy to help maintain a capability in this area, including planning off-shore research in countries where FMD already exists such as Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Minister Helper and Mr Ramsay inspected the non-secure accessions area of the Diagnostic Emergency Response Laboratory to see how it would operate in an emergency animal disease outbreak situation. Both Minister Helper and Mr Ramsay expressed interest in returning to inspect AAHL's secure area in the near future.
