Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry issues import alert – Foot and mouth disease outbreak in Germany
15 January 2025
Background
Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a serious and highly contagious animal disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals including cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, deer and camelids (camels, alpacas and llamas).
Australia is free from FMD and has been for over 100 years. While it poses no human health threat, there would be severe consequences for animal health and trade of dairy, meat, and livestock if FMD was to occur here and hence Australia has very strict import requirements for many animal based products.
Following notification from Germany on 10 January 2025 to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) of an outbreak of FMD the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is working to assess the biosecurity risk to Australia and what this might mean for import conditions.
Issue for members
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) has removed Germany from the list of FMD-free countries effective 14 November 2024. This means any commercial dairy consignment or personal quantities of dairy and other animal-based products sourced, manufactured or exported from Germany from 14th November will be held under biosecurity control, effective immediately.
Please note the following impacted commodities sourced, manufactured or exported from Germany:
The Department will directly contact any permit holders or permit applicants impacted by this outbreak to advise of any potential changes to import conditions. It will undertake a detailed assessment of all traded goods from Germany and may introduce additional import restrictions for commodities, including pet food, stock feed, laboratory reagents and reproductive material.
More information will be made available via BICON alerts, industry advice notices and other official communication channels as this risk assessment progresses.
The AFGC advises members subscribe to these if you haven’t already.
AFGC action
The Department has contacted the AFGC to help identify products of ‘critical’ importance (e.g. highly specialised infant nutrition or other food for special medical purposes) where supply may be impacted. The Department is keen to work with the industry to find practical pathways to address this issue. The AFGC would be grateful for affected members to provide details on these.
The AFGC will keep the members informed of any further developments.
Contact
Members seeking more information or requiring assistance with liaising with the department, please contact Devika Thakkar, AFGC Regulatory Advisor – Scientific and Technical.
Dr Duncan Craig
Director, Nutrition and Regulation
