In the wake of the H7 “local” Avian Influenza outbreaks in Vic, NSW and ACT, there has been a rush of bureaucratic survey-taking, and requests for input and opinion, all hoping that meat poultry growers tell government departments how wonderfully they handled the outbreak. Sadly, they are receiving the truth: the good, the bad and the ugly. at $10-12 MILLION per farm and farms out of production for nearly 6 months, nobody can be really happy about the outcome. One positive thing has been the appointment of an Efficiency Analyst, who has been valuable in identifying where things went wrong. 
Amongst this has been a review of the Biosecurity Agreement – that funding arrangement that splits the cost of outbreaks according to the disease, the industry and the potential for the disease to infect humans.
Did you know that the industry (via a biosecurity levy on chicks) is still paying for it’s share of the Newcastle Disease outbreak in 2000?
The industry “share” of Avian Influenza is less – because AI has the potential to be a human disease. Still, this industry will be paying for part of the “local” outbreak, and any H5N1 “nasty” strain in the future.
BIOSECURITY AGREEMENT DISCUSSION PAPER
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