A leaked report has fuelled debate about SA’s future management of the sheep wasting condition ovine johnes disease.
It comes as WoolProducers Australia and Sheep Producers Australia undertake a review into OJD to decide whether to continue, modify or scrap the national program and seek producer feedback.
Through the years, SA has been on the front foot, quarantining infected properties and maintaining an infection rate of less than 1.5 per cent in its flocks.
But the PIRSA and SA Sheep Advisory Group-commissioned report has concluded the infection rate of the disease has been significantly underestimated, especially in the South East.
In the past 20 years, an estimated 190 infected flocks across SA have been detected, with the highest prevalence 26 per cent on Kangaroo Island and 2.6pc in the SE.
There are about six new detections of OJD each year but the report states in 2015, only 22 per cent of flocks in the SE had sheep inspected at abattoirs, the key method of detecting OJD.
In his October 2016 findings the report’s author, then-University of Adelaide School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences’ Kym Abbott recommended SA follow the rest of the nation and deregulate, putting the responsibility back onto individual producers’ biosecurity.
He also recommended diverting funds from vaccine subsidies and farm investigations to increasing producer knowledge of the disease and expanding abattoir surveillance.
The report also stated deregulation was Biosecurity SA’s preferred model.
But it also noted if regulation was removed, OJD infection was expected to spread through the state’s medium and high rainfall zones at a higher rate and progress towards the levels of flock infection seen in Vic, NSW and New Zealand.
“OJD will present a significant disease threat to producers in the medium and high rainfall regions, requiring preventative vaccination to control the disease,” the report said.
OJD Report Recommendations
- Move to deregulation
- Conduct an epidemiological study needed for a reliable estimate of the prevalence of OJD in SA
- Producers in some areas should be encouraged, if appropriate, to create regional biosecurity groups
- Abattoir surveillance should be expanded
- Adapt the Sheep Health Statements to provide OJD assurance levels
Stock Journal’s questions regarding why the comprehensive review was not made available to the state’s sheep producers went unanswered, with a PIRSA spokesperson saying they were unable to comment on the report or Biosecurity SA’s position on the disease due to the state government being in caretaker mode.
Marrabel producer Ian Rowett, who is the chairman of the government advisory group SASAG, was also contacted about the report but said he had been requested by PIRSA not to comment.
Livestock SA president Joe Keynes says it is “time to have a debate”.
He urged SA producers to have their say in the national review, as the first step.
“There is an opportunity for us as a state to get the aggregated results based on postcodes and see what SA producers are thinking and then as an industry and organisation we can respond to that going forward,” he said.
Mr Keynes said Livestock SA’s present position was to maintain the existing OJD program but future management of the disease would be discussed at its March 22 board meeting.
He was not concerned about the report being kept from growers and said because Dr Abbott’s report was commissioned by PIRSA, not industry, it was up to them to “do with it what they wanted”.
“A lot of work has gone into getting ideas from a range of groups so it has to help in forming the debate but it is not a definitive answer,” he said of the report.
Elders Naracoorte branch manager Tom Dennis says the present state management is “overkill” and wants to see OJD managed at farmgate level, similar to other diseases such as pestivirus in cattle.
He says false positives from pooled faecal testing and abattoir surveillance have caused far greater anguish and financial losses to producers than deaths and lost production from OJD.
“People with ram sales have been crippled and anyone selling first-cross ewes has been crippled and I will stand corrected but the damage was far worse compared to what the disease does to the flock,” he said.