Biosecurity practices and the management of emergency animal diseases among beef producers in Australia

Purpose: Prevention of emergency animal diseases (EAD) in Australia relies on strict offshore and border measures and disease surveillance and control programs onshore. Producers are crucial for disease control; however, there is limited information on producers’ awareness of disease risks and their management practices. The aims of this study were to investigate how beef producers in Australia manage EADs risks and to explore knowledge transfer strategies for biosecurity and EAD prevention.
Methods: To achieve these aims face-to-face interviews with government and industry stakeholders (n=18) and a cross-sectional study among beef producers, using a postal survey (n = 182) and face-to-face interviews (n = 34), were conducted.
Results: Findings indicate that animal health system stakeholders have clearly defined responsibilities in biosecurity and EAD prevention and management. However, producers are uncertain about these roles, which can affect their willingness and trust to report animal disease and confusion about EAD management. Producers are aware of the sources of animal disease risk and prioritise herd health. However, EAD and biosecurity planning are a low priority as they perceive EAD events unlikely to occur. In addition, only moderate implementation of biosecurity practices, such as isolating incoming animals or keeping visitors’ records, was reported. Furthermore, over 40% of producers had minimal knowledge of the meaning of EAD, with over 20% reporting no veterinary contact in the last five years and an additional 8.5% who had never contacted a veterinarian. In the event of an unusual disease, most producers would contact their private or government veterinarian; however, most would also treat themselves and some would do nothing and wait.
Conclusions and relevance: Results from this study suggest that there is a need for better coordination between stakeholders to encourage a shared biosecurity and EAD understanding and to communicate a consistent message to producers. The study also highlights the need for improving producer awareness of the importance of EAD prevention and biosecurity practices as well as the stakeholders’ roles within the animal health system.