All mail and freight being sent to New Zealand from Indonesia will be subject to strict screening in a bid to avoid an outbreak of foot and mouth disease here, the Government has confirmed.
The disease, which could cost the country billions of dollars and more than 100,000 jobs if rampant amongst livestock, is causing major concern in South Asia.
An outbreak of the disease was discovered in Bali and fragments of the virus that cause the disease have also been found in meat products entering Australia from Indonesia, causing fresh concerns about the possibility of it arriving in New Zealand.
In the UK, a severe outbreak in 2001 led to more than 6 million animals being slaughtered.
"Foot and mouth disease has been always considered the doomsday disease for the New Zealand farming sector," NZ Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor told reporters on Monday.
Speaking to AM on Tuesday, O'Connor said the Government was taking the threat seriously, adding tighter screening as part of the wider plan to combat the disease.
"Over 60 percent of our exports come from the primary sector," he told host Melissa Chan-Green. "This would affect every single New Zealander which is why we're asking every one of us to keep an eye out. If we're travelling overseas - keep an eye out for where we go and ensure we're not in contact with animals."
He said the disease would cause chaos if it spread to wild animals.
"One of the big dangers is that foot and mouth might get into the wild animals in New Zealand and that would be really difficult to eradicate. The UK was successful in eradication, most of those animals were on farms - the chances are that this could spread, as I said, to the wild animal population… that would make [eradication] impossible so we have to keep it out."
He said New Zealand had to do a number of things to up our game in biosecurity.
"Anyone who's been to Indonesia, from China and Malaysia… we have stringent systems in place but those countries that have had it for a while, we've looked at the systems - we're making sure we are just as vigilant from those countries as we are from Indonesia."
The Government was doing as much as it could to alert New Zealanders about the risks and had learned lessons from the 2017 Mycoplasma Bovis (M Bovis) outbreak, he said.
"We've been keeping in contact with farmers and the farming sector leaders… stopping all stock movements would be one of the things that would have to happen immediately.
"They're aware of that and… because of the experience of M Bovis, we're in a better position to communicate with farmers and express to them the importance of adhering to those instructions, should foot and mouth ever arrive here.
"We've learned many lessons from that and so prevention's better than cure; making sure we don't assume anything, that we check our systems and we make sure that everyone bringing anything into the country adheres to the current law."
Foot and mouth could spread far more quickly than M Bovis which is why New Zealand couldn't afford to take shortcuts, O'Connor said.
Reserve Bank modelling projects a widespread foot and mouth outbreak in New Zealand would have an estimated direct economic impact of around $10 billion after two years.
New Zealand "has never had an outbreak and we want to do all we can to keep it that way", Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at her post-Cabinet news conference on Monday.
"To all New Zealanders and travellers please be responsible. Please be honest and thorough in your biosecurity declarations as you return from overseas travel," Ardern said.
