{"id":44775,"date":"2025-08-05T07:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44775\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T07:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:22:11","slug":"fmd-would-devastate-australias-beef-industry-if-it-got-in-heres-how-the-new-vaccine-might-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44775\/","title":{"rendered":"FMD would devastate Australia\u2019s beef industry if it got in. Here\u2019s how the new vaccine might\u00a0help"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image: Eric Buermeyer\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

IT sounds innocuous. But foot-and-mouth disease is one of the world\u2019s most economically devastating<\/a> diseases affecting livestock.<\/p>\n

When this highly contagious virus infects cattle, many develop painful blisters. Some die, but the real damage<\/a> is longer term. Milk yields drop sharply for dairy cows and overall health takes a hit. While the disease can infect other cloven-hoofed animals such as sheep, cows are the worst hit.<\/p>\n

The last outbreak in Australia was in 1872<\/a>. But three years ago, foot-and-mouth arrived in Indonesia, triggering widespread alarm and new biosecurity measures<\/a>. If the virus made it to Australia, it would put livestock exports at real risk. Graziers are also on edge<\/a> about the government\u2019s decision to open the door to beef imports from the United States.<\/p>\n

When an outbreak is detected, authorities usually have to cull huge numbers of animals to prevent it spreading. But now another option is emerging \u2013 a new locally-produced mRNA vaccine<\/a> able to be tailored to specific viral strains.<\/p>\n

If the vaccine proves safe and effective, it could let authorities respond rapidly to any outbreak by vaccinating animals in a ring around any outbreak.<\/p>\n

\"cows<\/a>Australia\u2019s 30 million cattle would be at risk if the virus arrived and spread.
William Edge\/Shutterstock<\/a>
\nWhat\u2019s so bad about foot-and-mouth?<\/p>\n

The virus which causes foot-and-mouth disease is extremely contagious. Many other infectious animal diseases only spread between animals in close proximity. But this virus can spread through the air and survive on surfaces for a long time.<\/p>\n

The widespread and persistent damage<\/a> it does to animal health, milk output and fertility is enough to make it a real concern for big farming nations such as Australia.<\/p>\n

Livestock exporters rely on Australia\u2019s status as a nation free of major animal diseases. This status means animals and animal products can be freely exported to many nations.<\/p>\n

If foot-and-mouth entered Australia, it would devastate the export trade. Many countries would stop buying Australian animals and animal products to stop the virus getting into their own disease-free herds.<\/p>\n

In 2001, an outbreak of the virus in the United Kingdom was detected after it had already spread widely. To control it, authorities culled over six million animals<\/a>. It cost the industry an estimated A$16 billion in damages.<\/p>\n

These mass culls are done because the virus is so contagious. Authorities have to race against its spread.<\/p>\n

\"burning<\/a>To control the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak in the United Kingdom, authorities had to cull millions of animals and burn their carcasses.
Odd Andersen\/AFP via Getty<\/a>
\nHow would this vaccine fit in?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely Australia\u2019s 30 million cattle<\/a> would be preemptively vaccinated against the virus.<\/p>\n

This is for several reasons. While vaccines help animals fight the virus, preemptive vaccination could actually affect Australia\u2019s disease free status, as vaccination can make it harder to detect an outbreak. Immunity tends to last less than a year. The virus has many different strains, which makes it harder to get full protection. Any vaccine has to match the dominant strains in a region.<\/p>\n

If foot-and-mouth got into Australia, the main goal would be to eradicate it as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the virus could jump into feral herds of pigs, goats and deer, after which it would become very difficult to control.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If the virus was detected early and confined to a small area, authorities would most likely lock down animal movement in the area and slaughter the affected herds.<\/p>\n

But if the virus was detected late and a wider outbreak was under way, authorities would have to launch a different response. This would involve creating blockages to the virus as quickly as possible. Vaccinating animals in the wider area would act to create a barrier to the virus spreading, alongside other measures such as restricting animal movement and culling.<\/p>\n

Vaccines for foot-and-mouth aren\u2019t new. Stockpiles already exist overseas, and Australia would be able to access these in the event of an outbreak.<\/p>\n

There are two reasons this new mRNA vaccine is a significant development.<\/p>\n

First, it\u2019s being locally produced, making it easier for authorities to ramp up a response at the speed required.<\/p>\n

Second, mRNA technology offers the ability to rapidly tweak vaccines to match new strains. This would likely boost how effective it is. mRNA vaccine production can be scaled up very quickly too.<\/p>\n

While the technology seems promising, it\u2019s not guaranteed. Livestock vaccines have to pass rigorous regulatory checks to ensure they\u2019re safe for the animals and for human consumers.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/a>Authorities have to respond quickly to foot-and-mouth outbreaks. Pictured: an Indonesian animal health officer inspecting a cow\u2019s mouth for blisters on the outskirts of Jakarta after the virus emerged in 2022.
Wulandari Wulandari\/Shutterstock<\/a>
\nWhat\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

The news of this new vaccine for foot-and-mouth is welcome. But it\u2019s not a silver bullet.<\/p>\n

Australia has long relied on stringent biosecurity measures to protect its large agricultural export industries. To boost their effectiveness, authorities have also rolled out new technologies such as one of the world\u2019s best livestock tracking systems<\/a>. Each cow in Australia has a unique ID tag. The tag records where the animal has been over the course of its life.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s an outbreak of an infectious disease such as foot-and-mouth, this tracking data will be invaluable. Authorities will be able to see where infected animals have been and which others may have been exposed.<\/p>\n

Vaccines, culling and tracking might sound like overkill. But this simple virus cannot be underestimated.\"The<\/p>\n

Timothy J. Mahony<\/a> is a Professor of Animal Health and Director, Centre for Animal Science, The University of Queensland<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Eric Buermeyer\/Shutterstock \u00a0 \u00a0 IT sounds innocuous. But foot-and-mouth disease is one of the world\u2019s most economically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,39040,36501,137],"class_list":["post-44775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fmd","tag-foot-and-mouth-disease","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}