What the government is doing to prevent a biosecurity disaster

Outbreaks of animal diseases such as FMD within Tasmanian livestock communities can devastate the state's economy, supply chain, and local producers.

The transition to eID will mean a change from a visual, mob-based traceability system to a system where individual sheep and goats are traced using electronic identification tags.

To help Tasmanian sheep and goat producers transition to the new eID system, the state government is providing $11.6 million in funding.

Minister for Primary Industries and Water Jo Palmer said eligible supply chain participants would receive rebates of up to 75 per cent of costs for eID scanning infrastructure and up to 100 per cent for eID scanning equipment for eligible agricultural societies, not-for-profit groups, and producers.

"eID's are a valuable, on-farm and off-farm tool that are designed to assist in traceability," Mrs Palmer said.

"Tasmania is fortunate to have some of the world's best produce.

"Traceability is important for biosecurity, product integrity, and maintaining market access advantages and consumer confidence."

Mrs Palmer said rapid tracing with an eID would take one hour, compared to three days without an eID.

"eIDs will further protect Tasmania's agricultural industries," she said.

"In the event of an emergency animal disease outbreak or incident, it is critical that animal location and movements can be traced quickly to limit the spread of disease and reduce impacts."

Tasmanian Biosecurity Advisory Committee chair Felicity Richards said the introduction of a new identification system was well received by farmers.

"As farmers, we know it's absolutely critical having electronic identification in our animals," Mrs Richards said.

"Knowing where an animal is from, where it's moved to, is going to enable us to respond much more quickly or for the government to respond as well as industry to respond much more quickly in the event of any outbreak."

An FMD outbreak in Australia is estimated to have an $80 billion impact on the economy.

Biosecurity Tasmania general manager Rae Burrows said while there would be some increased investment associated with this change, the benefits of improved traceability far outweigh any increased costs.

"By enhancing sheep and goat traceability, Tasmania will be more equipped to respond and recover from emergency animal disease outbreaks quickly," Ms Burrows said.

"Animal disease outbreaks such as FMD and Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) have been spreading internationally and are currently the biggest threat to our livestock.

"These eIDs can limit the spread of the disease, minimise the number of animals impacted, and reduce the impact on our producers, the supply chain, and our community."