Australia’s chief vet reveals how long foot and mouth disease ‘danger period’ will last

Australia’s chief vet says the “danger period” for foot and mouth disease will last for another six months.

Australia’s chief veterinary officer, Dr Mark Schipp, says closing the borders isn’t currently warranted but “we review that almost on a daily basis”.

“Indonesia anticipates they will have rolled out vaccination to all of the animals in Indonesia in six months, that will mean that we’re no longer in an epidemic phase there, and it moves to an endemic arrangement as we have with many other countries in the region – China, Thailand, India, Vietnam and the like,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“The greatest risk avenue is people bringing in meat products and food products.”

Press PLAY below to hear what Australia is doing to reduce the risk