Scientists crippled by lumpy skin vaccine | The mail
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ANIMAL biosecurity experts are calling for an “immediate conversation” with livestock producers about the need to import live lumpy skin disease virus in order to work on vaccines and diagnostics. The threat of the disease reaching Australia is now imminent and the consequences would be devastating, including the immediate closure of overseas markets for live cattle, hides and milk and possibly canned beef. Sentiment among pastors appears to be in favor of a change to Australia’s policy of not allowing the live version of diseases not yet present in the country, put in place by the Howard government in 2006 amid outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease abroad. The Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association states that they agree with the need to import live lumpy skin virus for research purposes. The live virus would go to the Australian Center for Disease Prevention, run by CSIRO, in Geelong – one of the highest animal disease containment facilities in the world. At the time of its construction, diseases like foot-and-mouth disease and smallpox were far from Australia, so it was decided that the ACDP would not keep live versions of viruses. Once an animal is injected with live virus, there is no way to tell it apart from a natural case. So as soon as it happens for research purposes, Australia must report to the world animal health organization, the OIE, that it has the disease – which has trade implications. This provided a good reason to prevent live virus imports. However, with the lumpy skin now just 3,000 kilometers off the Australian coast in Sumatra, the situation has changed, the assistant secretary for biosecurity and compliance at the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environmental Affairs said. Environment, Andrew Tongue. He described the vaccines that have been developed overseas to date for lumpy skin as questionable and suggested Australia should take matters into its own hands. “Because they were made incorrectly, they interacted with the disease and new variants of lumpy skin appeared,” Tongue said. “So we don’t want to come out of the world and say send us your vaccines. ‘In our environment, I guarantee you it will cause something very serious – like disease in cattle crossing sheep and goats.’ NEWS: Australian scientists working with international colleagues are very concerned about the nature of the emerging variants, he said. “Because we can’t study these diseases, we don’t know how they evolve and so it’s up to us very difficult to fight them.'” Mr Tongue said. “The conversation needs to happen, and quickly, with industry about the tolerance of allowing the live lumpy skin virus into Australia so we can be better prepared.” There was also a desperate need to support diagnoses, he said. To facilitate rapid detection of disease, all diagnostic equipment should be calibrated against live virus. “We can’t advance diagnostics at the moment. We can buy some from overseas, but it’s the Australian beef industry,” Mr Tongue said. “As soon as we get lumpy skin here , the risk equation changes and the live vaccine becomes one of our few weapons.
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ANIMAL biosecurity experts are calling for an “immediate conversation” with livestock producers about the need to import live lumpy skin disease virus in order to work on vaccines and diagnostics.
The threat of the disease reaching Australia is now imminent and the consequences would be devastating, including the immediate closure of foreign markets for live cattle, hides and milk and possibly canned beef.
Sentiment among pastors appears to be in favor of a change to Australia’s policy of not allowing the live version of diseases not yet present in the country, put in place by the Howard government in 2006 amid outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease abroad.
The Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association states that they agree with the need to import live lumpy skin virus for research purposes.
The live virus would go to the Australian Center for Disease Prevention, run by CSIRO, in Geelong – one of the highest animal disease containment facilities in the world.
At the time of its construction, diseases like foot-and-mouth disease and smallpox were far from Australia, so it was decided that the ACDP would not keep live versions of viruses.
Once an animal is injected with live virus, there is no way to tell it apart from a natural case. So as soon as it happens for research purposes, Australia must report to the world animal health organization, the OIE, that it has the disease – which has trade implications.
This provided a good reason to prevent live virus imports.
However, with the lumpy skin now just 3,000 kilometers off the Australian coast in Sumatra, the situation has changed, the assistant secretary for biosecurity and compliance at the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environmental Affairs said. Environment, Andrew Tongue.
He described the vaccines that have been developed overseas to date for lumpy skin as questionable and suggested Australia should take matters into its own hands.
“Because they were made incorrectly, they interacted with the disease and new variants of lumpy skin appeared,” Tongue said.
“So we don’t want to come out of the world and say send us your vaccines.
“In our environment, I guarantee you it will cause something very serious – like disease in cattle crossing sheep and goats.”
Australian scientists working with international colleagues are very concerned about the nature of the emerging variants, he said.
“Because we can’t study these diseases, we don’t know how they develop and so it’s very difficult for us to fight them,” Tongue said.
“The conversation needs to happen, and quickly, with industry about the tolerance of allowing live lumpy skin virus into Australia so we can be better prepared.”
It was also desperately needed to support diagnoses, he said.
To facilitate rapid detection of disease, all diagnostic equipment should be calibrated against live virus.
“We can’t advance diagnostics at the moment. We can buy some from overseas, but that’s from the Australian beef industry,” Mr Tongue said.
“As soon as we have lumpy skin here, the risk equation changes and then the live vaccine becomes one of our few weapons.”