Shaping the Future: First Biosecurity Youth Summit

This year, the inaugural Biosecurity Youth Summit was hosted alongside the 3rd Australian Biosecurity Symposium.  AHA was excited to partner with Biosecurity Queensland on the planning and delivery of the Summit, welcoming 40 high school students from across Queensland to Sea World, where they engaged and immersed themselves in all thing’s biosecurity.

Dr Samanatha Allan (AHA CEO) said, “The Youth Summit provided students with the opportunity to explore different elements of biosecurity and enhance their creative thinking, leadership skills, self-awareness and cultural understanding. The Summit also provided all of us a learning opportunity – listening to the insights of our next generation of biosecurity champions.”

Inaugural National Biosecurity Week

AHA was proud to partner with Plant Health Australia in funding the inaugural National Biosecurity Week – an initiative of the Decade of Biosecurity Project and a key outcome from the 2022 Australian Biosecurity Symposium.  National Biosecurity Week took place from 26 – 30 August 2024 and highlighted the crucial role biosecurity plays in safeguarding our environment, agricultural industries, food supply, communities, and economy.

Learn more here

National Arbovirus Monitoring Program Technical Committee Annual Meeting

The National Arbovirus Monitoring Program Technical Committee met from 20-22 August at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, Menangle, to review program activities from the 2023-24 arbovirus season, and plan for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 season.

Highlights from the 2023-24 year included input from the program for a visiting delegation from the United Kingdom in relation to the monitoring of Bluetongue virus (BTV) in Australia in support of trade negotiations and protocols. The Technical Committee also supported state Chief Veterinary Officers following an outbreak of clinical Bluetongue in sheep in the east of the country during the first half of 2024.

The 2023-24 season saw an expansion of the BTV transmission zone west in Queensland and New South Wales, following detections in the Paroo Shire and Coonabarabran. Detections in the south of New South Wales at Sutton Forest and Bega, saw the expansion of the buffer zone into north-east Victoria. The committee noted the establishment of Culicoides nudipalpis on Croker Island, off the coast of the NT, with the Northern Australian Quarantine Strategy to conduct further trapping in the area in the upcoming season.

The meeting also featured presentations on updates on a project for DNA metabarcoding of Culicoides species (a molecular technique to identify species composition based on a short region of DNA) and discussions on strengthening virology testing protocols for BTV to support early detection of new virus serotypes within Australia.

Screw Worm Fly Surveillance and Preparedness Program Steering Committee Annual Meeting

The Screw-worm Fly (SWF) Surveillance and Preparedness Program Steering Committee met from 10-11 September at the Biosecurity Sciences Laboratory, Brisbane to discuss program activities during the 2023-24 financial year, and plan for 2024-25 and 2025-26.

During 2023-24, the awareness video for SWF under the program was updated and can be viewed on the program’s website (Monitoring for screw-worm fly – Animal Health Australia). Focuses of the meeting included strengthening awareness of veterinarians, producers and stock handlers to increase submission of maggots under the program’s myiasis inspections component, and activities which support Australia’s animal health status of being free of this exotic pest.

A focus for the program for the upcoming year will be reviewing SWF incursion pathways and reconfirming that activities under the program continue to meet the program target of detecting a potential SWF incursion within 12 months.

Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA)

• The EADRA Categorisation Working Group met for the third time on 1 August, with the next meeting set to take place on 12 September.
• The EADRA team continues to prepare for the 2024 EADRA variations and amendments, with a placeholder invitation sent to signatories to meet on the Tuesday 22 October for the annual variations and amendments meeting.
• The EADRA workshop is taking place on Tuesday AM on 24 September. The team will be hosting briefing sessions for industry and government Parties to help attendees be well prepared to participate in the workshop.

Australian Veterinary Emergency Plan (AUSVETPLAN)

• The AUSVETPLAN Technical Review Group met in Brisbane on 20 – 22 September 2024 for the 53^rd face to face meeting. The group had a very productive 3 days discussing movement controls and some technical elements of the foot-and-mouth disease, lumpy skin disease and African swine fever manuals.
• The AUSVETPLAN Enterprise Manual: Beef cattle feedlots was endorsed by the Animal Health Committee and will be published on the AHA website soon.
• New writing groups have recently commenced reviews of the AUSVETPLAN Response strategy: Sheep and goat pox and the AUSVETPLAN Response strategy: Surra.

Foot-and-mouth disease vaccine bank update

AHA manages Australia’s foot-and-mouth (FMD) vaccine bank on behalf of the relevant funding parties (the Commonwealth, state and territory governments and relevant livestock industries) under a formal funding agreement and has done so since 2004.

The bank is located overseas and comprises quantities of relevant FMD antigens for the manufacture of vaccines to enable Australia to respond to an outbreak of FMD.

The bank is renewed every five years based on Australia’s agreed risk profile, to ensure that the bank provides coverage against currently circulating FMD virus strains, and those considered to be the highest risk to Australia over the life of the bank. The quantities and strains of antigens currently held in the bank were determined by a risk assessment, which considered the incursion and outbreak scenarios that might affect Australia. The current bank will expire at the end of 2024.

The tender process for the new 2024-2029 vaccine bank is now complete and the preferred supplier is Boehringer Ingelheim. The tender process included a detailed assessment of the current risk profile, evaluation of the antigens required for the bank, the number of doses of antigens required, and the capabilities of the various international suppliers to meet those requirements.

AHA is currently in negotiations with Boehringer Ingelheim, with the objective of having a new supply agreement between AHA (on behalf of the funding parties) and Boehringer Ingelheim signed by the end of September 2024, and the renewed FMD vaccine bank in place by December 2024. The supply and funding agreements authorise AHA to act as the agent for the funding parties and commits the funding parties to fund AHA’s contractual and financial obligations.

Concurrently, AHA is also managing the process for updating the import permit and emergency use permit to consider the content of the renewed FMD vaccine bank.

Each funding party’s share of the renewal of the bank for 2024-2029, as well as the first year of project expenses, which includes the establishment and management of a new working group to advise on fore sighting and contingency planning, is outlined in the Annual Operating Plan 2024-25.

The annual project costs include AHA staff time, legal costs, antigen storage, and maintenance of the cold chain logistics contract and a stockpile of vaccination equipment.

Liaison – Livestock Industry (LLI) Workshops

LLI Workshop in Victoria

The LLI Workshop was delivered by AHA in collaboration with Agriculture Victoria (AgVIC) on Wednesday 31 July. The workshop welcomed over 30 new and existing LLI representatives from our Peak Industry Bodies, in addition to several AgVIC staff members who were keen to learn more about the LLI role.

Those in attendance appreciated the opportunity to strengthen their networks and enjoyed learning from Victorian response staff, as well as hearing about Industries’ lived experiences in the LLI function. Participants walked away with an increased understanding, appreciation, and confidence in their ability to perform the LLI role.

LLI Online Course

LLI Victoria workshop participants had the opportunity of being the first workshop cohort to complete this course in preparation for face-to-face training. The LLI online course will now replace the EAD Foundation course as the prerequisite eLearning for LLI workshops, with the aim of allowing more time for scenario-based sessions and discussions during the workshop.

LLI Exercise Audiatur – Nominations closing soon!

After the success of initial LLI training in Victoria, AHA, AgVIC and Industry members look forward to the next opportunity to build on the capability of LLI representatives in Exercise Audiatur.  If you know of existing or potential LLI candidates, please reach out to them to discuss their interest in attending and have them complete the expression of interest form emailed directly to AHA’s industry members. Contact trainingsupport@animalhealthaustralia.com.au for any questions.

Visit the dedicated Exercise Audiatur webpage to learn more

Training opportunities 2024

The first half of 2024 has seen AHA busy delivering numerous training workshops, in addition to planning ahead for several training opportunities across the remainder of the year. For your awareness as this busy year progresses, AHA wanted to provide you with some key dates to keep in mind.

AHA is pleased to announce the delivery of the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Disease (CCEAD) workshop face-to-face (F2F) on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 September 2024 in Canberra, ACT, in conjunction with AHA Member Engagement Week. Please note, the workshop will be held over 1.5 days and will be by registration only. Registration details were sent on Monday 5 August – if you have any further questions, please reach out to trainingsupport@animalhealthaustralia.com.au

AHA will also deliver a LLI workshop in the Northern Territory on Wednesday 20 November 2024. Full details of this workshop will be shared when registrations open to Peak Industry Bodies in mid-September – in preparation for this workshop, we encourage Peak Industry Bodies to begin considering suitable LLI representatives within the NT.

Please find factsheets for CCEAD, LLI, and the Exercise Audiatur to help provide guidance regarding the background and target audience for each.

In May of 2024 AHA released the Liaison – Livestock Industry Online Course, which has now replaced the EAD Foundation Course as the prerequisite eLearning for LLI Workshops – with Victoria being the first opportunity to trial this in July. With more theory being delivered prior to LLI Workshops, AHA is looking forward to being able to provide more in-depth scenario-based workshops so that LLI representatives are further prepared to step into the role and advocate for their industry.

We look forward to seeing you all throughout the remainder of 2024.

Around the traps

• Recent Advances in Emergency Animal Diseases Annual Symposium – CSIRO
• Avoid hypothermia, exposure losses following shearing – The Local (tlnews.com.au)
• Kangaroo Island plan to eradicate sheep blowflies to take wing – Sheep Central
• Excessive number of sheep ear tag breakages first sign of eID teething issues – ABC News
• Another major step taken towards establishing WA’s Critical State Biosecurity Response Centre | PS News
• New VIC Gov’t funding aimed at biosecurity of livestock – Food & Beverage Industry News (foodmag.com.au)
• World Heritage Centre – Avian Flu – A Threat to Biodiversity (unesco.org)