Foot and mouth disease causes painful lesions on cloven-hoofed animals including sheep, cattle, pigs and goats. Infected animals are destroyed to halt the spread of the infection.
Last updated 27 July 2022
Need to know
- Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is spreading through popular Indonesian tourist destinations including Bali.
- Don’t allow visitors who have been on farms or in contact with farm animals while overseas in countries that have FMD onto your farm for at least a week after their arrival in New Zealand.
- Ensure stringent on-farm biosecurity protocols are in place and adhered to.
- All animal movement records and animal health declarations must be up to date. For cattle and deer ensure your NAIT recording is up to date. For all other livestock species use the electronic ASD (eASD) functionality provided by OSPRI.
- Do not feed uncooked food waste to pigs.
- Become familiar with the symptoms of foot and mouth disease and do not hesitate to call 0800 80 99 66 or a vet.
Key resources
- MPI's advice to farmers and livestock owners about foot and mouth disease
- Drystock biosecurity guidelines (PDF, 3.1 MB)
- Biosecurity sign for your property (PDF, 147 KB)
- Biosecurity planner for your farm (PDF, 298 KB)
What does FMD look like?
See images below (note some include graphic content):
- cattle beast mouth
- cattle beast mouth
- cattle beast hoof
- sheep foot
- sheep mouth (severe case)
- sheep mouth (mild/moderate case)
B+LNZ’s role
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is leading NZ’s preparedness for a potential FMD outbreak.
B+LNZ is working closely with MPI to ensure every practical step is taken to prevent FMD entering the country. MPI has taken a number of steps to strengthen NZ’s border biosecurity, which was stringent by world standards – these include:
- Travellers are no longer permitted to bring in any meat products from Indonesia.
- Biosecurity New Zealand has stepped up its work at the border. Every passenger arrival card is examined and those from countries that have FMD (including Indonesia) are directed to a different process of questioning, baggage search and disinfection. This means that should passengers transit other airports, risks are still addressed.
- All mail products that come into New Zealand from Indonesia are also x-rayed and checked by dogs. Quarantine officers are checking all cargo containers coming from Indonesia.
However B+LNZ will continue to hold the Government and our border agencies to account because of the significant impact this disease could have.
We also have a role play in raising farmer awareness around the signs of FMD and having good on-farm biosecurity plans in place.