The state government on Wednesday unveiled plans to bolster biosecurity at Tasmanian airports with eight new inspectors to screen incoming travellers.
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The measure was announced as Federal Agriculture Minister, Murray Watt, departed for Indonesia to discuss the emergence of the foot and mouth disease there.
Farmers say the animal disease would devastate Australia's $32 billion livestock sector if it entered the country.
The new bio inspectors, who are staff that were earmarked for the covid response, are undergoing training and will begin work this week on "fixed term" contracts.
They will boost the state's second line of defence by screening travellers at airports in Devonport, Launceston and Hobart.
Foot and mouth disease is highly contagious and affects cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, as well as wild deer and other animals.
Australia has been free of the disease for over 100 years, and its emergence in nearby Bali has increased the risk to Australia, due to the high level of tourist travel to the island.
Jo Palmer, Minister for Primary Industries and Water, said the risk of the disease entering Australia is low.
"However, we do know that if that did change this has the potential to be absolutely devastating to our farmers, their families and the agricultural industry," she said.
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She urged international travellers - especially those returning from Bali - to "remain vigilant".
"What we are asking you to do is before you come back to Australia, thoroughly clean your shoes, thoroughly clean your clothes and your items, because foot and mouth disease can travel on them."
Thirlstane stud cattle farmer Brian Stewart said the measures announced on Wednesday were a "good move in the right direction" to protect his industry from foot and mouth.
"It's a real concern because we've got all those years of genetics and breeding and if we lost all that it would be heartbreaking," he said.
He said he saw the "trauma" visited on farms in the UK in 2009 after their outbreak of foot and mouth.
Central Highlands livestock farmer Bernard Brain likewise welcomed measures to boost biosecurity.
"If it ever got in to the country we'd be lumped in with all the other states and lose all the marketing and sales and it would even affect wool," he said.
Labor spokesperson for agriculture Janie Finlay said the government had put the state's agriculture sector at risk by not moving fast enough to bolter biosecurity.
"The government has been absent on this issue and once again, way too slow to act," she said.
Tasmanian Dairy Association chief executive officer Laura Richardson said she thought the government had acted as quickly as it could have, given the outbreak in Bali was discovered in the last week or so.
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