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By Jane Bardon
Wednesday, 12/03/2008
Australia's quarantine authority is in trouble again.Not with allowing a disease in, but one out.Australian cattle exported to the pacific island of New Calendonia have infected local cattle with tick fever called babesiosis.The Federal Government is blaming the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, saying the outbreak is due to a certification error.In November last year AQIS allowed 43 cattle vaccinated with a live vaccine to be sent to New Caledonia.That's contrary to New Caledonian laws, which say cattle must be drenched with chemicals. The live vaccine in the cattle has now spread tick fever into the country's herd. Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says AQIS made a mistake."It seems clear that there was a certification error by AQIS, and as a result of that error that there may be a significant impact on the beef industry in New Caledonia."Controlling the tick fever costs the Australian cattle industry over $20 million a year.Now Australia could be hit with the costs of the New Caledonian outbreak as well as compensation claims.New Calendonia is French territory and Tony Burke says he has met has been meeting the French Ambassador to Australia to offer help to try to repair the damage."Preliminary advice is that treating all the cattle, those exported from Australia and the New Caledonian cattle in contact with them, by injecting the chemical imazol would kill the organism in the cattle and prevent further transmission of the diseased ticks."I understand that AQIS is also seeking advice on how the disease could be eradicated from the New Caledonian tick population."Suspected AQIS mistakes led to the multimillion dollar horse flu outbreak.This latest AQIS bungle has the potential to damage Australia's reputation as an exporter of disease free livestock around the world.Some livestock exporters say they're worried the incident could affect other export markets. They don't want to speak out because they have to get their operations certified by AQIS every year.But the Live Export Industry is denying that Australia's exports could be damaged.Livecorp chief executive Cameron Hall said: "Each importing health protocol for an importing country is different, and significantly different in most cases."So most of the importing countries have a history of performance with regards to receiving Australian live animals into that marketplace, and meeting the importing country health protocol requirements."So does Cameron Hall think Australia's reputation is so good in our export markets that this incident won't damage confidence?"There may be questions raised, but history and performance over a long period of time accounts for an important aspect of the industry."Australia's director of Quarantine Conall O'Connell admits AQIS has made a mistake."This appears to have happened by a transcription error in the certification of the exports to New Caledonia and it's a regrettable error."So doesn't AQIS have a double checking mechanism to make sure this can't happen?"Yes there is a checking mechanism which should pick this up and we will need to be very clear why this didn't happen."Under normal conditions we would be confident our certification processes are amongst the leading in the world."So is Conall O'Connell confident Australia's reputation in other livestock export markets won't be affected by this incident?"Yes, I'm confident that our certification processes will retain the confidence of importing countries, the critical issue for those countries would be to undertake audits if they believe they were necessary."And following those audits to make an assessment of their level of confidence."I would expect that to be the case not withstanding we have a regrettable incident here with New Caledonia and we are looking with New Caledonia to quickly assist them with eradicating this disease."
In this report: Tony Burke, Federal Agriculture Minister; Cameron Hall, chief executive Livecorp; Conall O'Connell, Australian Director of Quarantine
Wednesday, 12/03/2008
Australia's quarantine authority is in trouble again.Not with allowing a disease in, but one out.Australian cattle exported to the pacific island of New Calendonia have infected local cattle with tick fever called babesiosis.The Federal Government is blaming the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, saying the outbreak is due to a certification error.In November last year AQIS allowed 43 cattle vaccinated with a live vaccine to be sent to New Caledonia.That's contrary to New Caledonian laws, which say cattle must be drenched with chemicals. The live vaccine in the cattle has now spread tick fever into the country's herd. Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says AQIS made a mistake."It seems clear that there was a certification error by AQIS, and as a result of that error that there may be a significant impact on the beef industry in New Caledonia."Controlling the tick fever costs the Australian cattle industry over $20 million a year.Now Australia could be hit with the costs of the New Caledonian outbreak as well as compensation claims.New Calendonia is French territory and Tony Burke says he has met has been meeting the French Ambassador to Australia to offer help to try to repair the damage."Preliminary advice is that treating all the cattle, those exported from Australia and the New Caledonian cattle in contact with them, by injecting the chemical imazol would kill the organism in the cattle and prevent further transmission of the diseased ticks."I understand that AQIS is also seeking advice on how the disease could be eradicated from the New Caledonian tick population."Suspected AQIS mistakes led to the multimillion dollar horse flu outbreak.This latest AQIS bungle has the potential to damage Australia's reputation as an exporter of disease free livestock around the world.Some livestock exporters say they're worried the incident could affect other export markets. They don't want to speak out because they have to get their operations certified by AQIS every year.But the Live Export Industry is denying that Australia's exports could be damaged.Livecorp chief executive Cameron Hall said: "Each importing health protocol for an importing country is different, and significantly different in most cases."So most of the importing countries have a history of performance with regards to receiving Australian live animals into that marketplace, and meeting the importing country health protocol requirements."So does Cameron Hall think Australia's reputation is so good in our export markets that this incident won't damage confidence?"There may be questions raised, but history and performance over a long period of time accounts for an important aspect of the industry."Australia's director of Quarantine Conall O'Connell admits AQIS has made a mistake."This appears to have happened by a transcription error in the certification of the exports to New Caledonia and it's a regrettable error."So doesn't AQIS have a double checking mechanism to make sure this can't happen?"Yes there is a checking mechanism which should pick this up and we will need to be very clear why this didn't happen."Under normal conditions we would be confident our certification processes are amongst the leading in the world."So is Conall O'Connell confident Australia's reputation in other livestock export markets won't be affected by this incident?"Yes, I'm confident that our certification processes will retain the confidence of importing countries, the critical issue for those countries would be to undertake audits if they believe they were necessary."And following those audits to make an assessment of their level of confidence."I would expect that to be the case not withstanding we have a regrettable incident here with New Caledonia and we are looking with New Caledonia to quickly assist them with eradicating this disease."
In this report: Tony Burke, Federal Agriculture Minister; Cameron Hall, chief executive Livecorp; Conall O'Connell, Australian Director of Quarantine
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