Ceny Ramm – Regional Director, Northern
When you travel into a country managing animal diseases that Australia works incredibly hard to keep out, biosecurity is naturally front of mind.
One of the most valuable parts of the NTCA Indonesia Supply Chain Tour was seeing firsthand how seriously animal health and biosecurity are treated within the businesses we visited.
Across the facilities we saw established biosecurity protocols and current vaccination programs for emergency animal diseases present in Indonesia.
For a group of people who work with livestock every day, these weren’t small details.
They generated plenty of questions and some valuable discussions about disease management, vaccination, livestock movements and the practical systems businesses have in place to protect the cattle under their care.
What also became very clear was the complexity that managing these diseases adds to an already complex supply chain.
Biosecurity influences how cattle are received and moved, vaccination programs, staff movements, cleaning and disinfection, infrastructure and the daily management of livestock.
All of that takes time, people and money.
Seeing those systems operating firsthand gave us a much greater appreciation of what managing emergency animal diseases actually looks like once they become part of your everyday operating environment.
It also made us think about what that reality could look like at home.
Trying to implement similar disease management measures across the enormous distances and remote operating environments of northern Australia would be an extraordinary logistical exercise.
When cattle, people, infrastructure, and essential services can be separated by thousands of kilometres and with access often dictated by deteriorating roads, weather and communications, the scale of what would be required almost defies what you believe is achievable.
It was a powerful reminder of just how valuable Australia’s biosecurity status is, and why protecting it matters.
Biosecurity can sometimes feel like something that exists in policies, plans and protocols.
Seeing disease management in practice makes it very real.
Biosecurity is everyone’s business and if nothing else, it’s a timely reminder for all of us to make sure our own biosecurity management plans are up to date and used.
