INDONESIAN authorities say they have now delivered more than 1.15 million foot and mouth vaccines to its population of 65 million FMD susceptible animals.
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Indonesia's 'Kementrian Pertanian' or Ministry of Agriculture shows on its website 1,152,869 head 'ekor' (livestock with tails) had received vaccines as of August 8.
The island that has received much of Australia's media attention, Bali, is reported as having zero cases. Slightly more than 88,000 of the 1m livestock located on the island are reported to have been vaccinated.
However, large swathes of the country comprising of more than 17,000 islands including Jawa and Sumatra are reported to have greater than 50 per cent FMD infection rates. Parts of Kalimantan, which shares a border with Malaysia, and Sulawesi are reported to have less than 50pc infection rates.
Queensland Live Exporters Association president Greg Pankhurst said the risk to Australia of being hit by FMD or lumpy skin disease would substantially increase if Irian Jaya or neighbouring Papua New Guinea became infected.
Irian Jawa is about 1400km from the nearest reported infected animals. However, livestock movements are virtually unrestricted across the achipeligo.
Speaking at the JLL Agribusiness event at the Ekka, Mr Pankhurst said there was just 3.5km between PNG and Australia's closest island.
Mr Pankhurst said part of the challenge in dealing with Indonesia was the "bad blood" created by the 2011 temporary ban on the export of Australian live cattle.
"Unfortunately, we - and specifically the ag sector - doesn't have a great relationship with Indonesia," Mr Pankhurst said.
"The damage caused by the shutdown of the livestock trade with Australia remains a major issue in Indonesia.
"We need to do everything we can to assist Indonesia and prevent FMD or lumpy skin from coming here."
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Opposition Deputy Leader David Littleproud also said Australia needed to do more to assist Indonesia eradicate FMD, as a safeguard against the disease reaching Australia.
In addition to increasing Australia's biosecurity efforts, more assistance needed to be provided to Indonesian authorities, he said.
AgForce Grains president Brendan Taylor said an outbreak of FMD in Australia would also have a major impact on the Australian grains industry.
"It's not just livestock that would be affected, it is also every other industry that is linked to livestock," Mr Taylor said.
An outbreak of FMD in Australia is expected to cost the economy about abouts $80 billion.
Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline: 1800 675 888
