Surviving an emergency disease outbreak

Two new documents have been published to help livestock producers survive an emergency disease outbreak.

Two new documents have been published to help livestock producers survive an emergency disease outbreak.

The first document, Preparing your business to survive: Risk management planning for an emergency animal disease outbreak, is designed to assist livestock enterprises prepare a risk management plan for emergency animal disease (EAD) outbreaks. This manual can help you by:

• explaining what will occur during an EAD outbreak using foot-and-mouth disease as an example
• outlining the main risks for your business
• analysing how the risks relate to your business and evaluating which risks you should address
• providing a list of possible actions you could undertake – either to prepare for, or to respond to, an outbreak
• explaining the process for implementation, communication and review of your risk management plan.

The second document, Preparing your business to survive an emergency animal disease outbreak: A 30-minute plan for grazing enterprises, is a planning tool to assist you to develop an EAD survival plan. The plan outlines what to do if your property were infected with, or classified as ‘at-risk’ of, an EAD.

The planning process in this document focuses on four key steps:

• thinking about your business
• understanding the risks
• identifying actions to take
• managing your obligations and responsibilities.

This document outlines a plan that takes just 30 minutes to prepare. It could improve the resilience of your business if an EAD occurs. You may even discover some useful ideas for improving the every-day operation of your business. Just follow the four steps provided.

These documents were commissioned by the following Animal Health Australia member livestock industry bodies including:

• Australian Dairy Farmers
• Australian Lot Feeders Association
• Australian Meat Industry Council
• Australian Pork
• Cattle Council of Australia
• Federation of Australian Wool Growers
• WoolProducers Australia