Australia versus Denmark: an analysis of foot-and-mouth disease mitigation strategies.

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has progressively increased as an economically significant viral pathogen to the global agricultural and livestock industries, especially in those countries listed as FMD-free, such as Australia and Denmark. The potential risk associated with the loss of this status enlists an equally significant level of biosecurity and outbreak preparedness via specific mitigation strategies. Current technology allows for modelling of theoretical incursion scenarios; however, the parameters used are ever-changing and differ based on location. This study aims to compare the modelling outputs from at least five separate studies, from both Australia and Denmark respectively, to identify the most significant results and subsequently determine the recommendations most important to implement for national FMD outbreak mitigation. The comparative analysis suggests that the demographics, both within and between Australia and Denmark, can markedly affect the spread of FMD, but that each country's modelling of potential FMD outbreaks yielded three common areas for future recommendations: resource allocation and control; economic efficiency; and alternative interventions. Key points of difference, however, were Denmark's island geography and subsequent isolated populations of high-density production that led to a more regional approach of minimising island-island spread through varying vaccination regimes and depopulation/surveillance zone combinations. Australia's strategies of control centred more around enhanced detection and surveillance to prevent the incidence of significant outbreaks in the production animal industry. The most common factor for both was cost, specifically the reduction in time to export post-outbreak, due to each respective export industry, and the significant losses associated with even short periods of trade bans due to disease. The costs of surveillance and resources were similarly investigated in tandem with different interventions to further understand the components of an effective mitigation method for any outbreak of FMD.