New biosecurity measure to protect against foot-and-mouth disease

FMD is a highly contagious viral disease that affects most of New Zealand's production animals, including cattle, sheep, pigs, deer and goats. Photo / File

Travellers will not be allowed to bring personal consignments of any meat products from Indonesia to New Zealand, in the latest step to protect against foot-and-mouth disease, Biosecurity New Zealand deputy director general Stuart Anderson says.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that, if present in New Zealand, would affect most of our production animals, including cattle, sheep, pigs, deer and goats.

Border officials in New Zealand and Australia have been on high alert since an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in Indonesia on 28 April.

Earlier this month, the disease was also confirmed in the holiday hotspot of Bali and traces of FMD were detected at the Australian border this week.

Although there was no live threat from the disease in Australia, it was a reminder of how vigilant people needed to be.

New Zealand's biosecurity system had the most stringent requirements in the world aimed at preventing FMD, but it was important to keep reassessing protections, Anderson said.

"Although the risk of the recent outbreak in Indonesia to New Zealand remains low, we remain on high alert.

"While Indonesia continues to step up its FMD response, we are taking an extra precaution and stopping travellers from bringing in personal consignments of any meat product."

Previously travellers from Indonesia could bring in declared cooked or treated meat, with the highest risk of uncooked meat products already prohibited, he said.

"Given the importance of protecting our vital primary sector, this is a good further step to take for now."

From today any personal consignments of meat from Indonesia, including cooked, will not be allowed in, Anderson said.

Biosecurity NZ would reassess the suspension at the appropriate time.

Any meat products brought in by travellers from Indonesia would be safely destroyed, Anderson said.

The rule change did not affect commercial products, which faced strict import standards.

Biosecurity NZ was committed to reviewing biosecurity settings where required and had taken several steps in recent weeks to boost protections, Anderson said.

These included stepping up checks at airports, introducing disinfectant mats for people returning from Indonesia to clean their footwear, an awareness campaign targeting travellers, and an on-the-ground audit of the palm kernel supply chain in Indonesia.

There had also been the establishment of an FMD Readiness Taskforce, Anderson said.

"[The Taskforce will] ensure all our preparedness work is refreshed and providing personal protective equipment, disinfectant, backpack sprayers and other tools to Indonesia to help on the ground, as well as our technical expertise."