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Australia spends upward of $1 billion on biosecurity each year but the world's nasties keep sneaking in.
The nation was no sooner waking up to the discovery of Japanese encephalitis last week to find it had just as quickly been declared endemic.
Endemic is biosecurity speak for here to stay.
Japanese encephalitis, or JEV, was on the biosecurity watch list but was ranked well below African Swine Fever or Foot and Mouth Disease which have a nightmare potential to devastate our livestock industries.
The frightening thing is authorities still don't know how JEV got in.
And like the COVID-19 virus, it is almost impossible to stop.
Like most of these worrying pest diseases and weeds, they are out of control just to our north leap-frogging down Torres Strait.
Sometimes we bring them in ourselves.
Think rabbits, prickly pear or even cane toads.
Gamba grass was brought in from Africa in the 1930s as a cattle feed and is now a massive fire hazard across the north.
The list is long.
The best guess is JEV flew over our defences on the wings of infected mosquitoes or migratory waterbirds.
How it came to be first detected in the southernmost mainland state of Victoria and is already spreading in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland is a real surprise.
It could have been here for weeks, maybe months.
Viral immunologist Dr Ali Zaid from the Griffith University's Menzies Health Institute in Queensland said there was an outbreak of JEV in northern Australia back in 1995 and detections in 2005.
Dr Zaid said birds, especially migratory birds, "might be carrying the virus around" and that pigs are good amplifying hosts.
"There is a theoretical concern that migratory birds could carry the virus southwards in Australia, even as far as Victoria," federal government health experts say.
Even last week there was some discussion about the potential for culling infected pig herds to be rid of JEV but the experts said it would already be in feral pig populations and waterbirds - too hard and too late.
Besides an infected pig is still safe to eat.
Many of the viruses and diseases that get into Australia have no cure.
JEV is unusual in that it has a vaccine.
But Encephalitis has been a killer in Australia for many years, in different guises.
The Murray Valley strain has sparked epidemics and many deaths over the decades since it arrived, again blamed on mosquitoes.
MVE is the reason many towns in riverland areas still have sentinel flocks of chickens which are regularly checked for signs of infection to give the alarm.
Just last week at the ABARES Outlook conference there was a high-level discussion on Australia's biosecurity danger.
Speakers agreed throwing buckets of money to shore up Australia's biosecurity won't fix the problem.
Australia's director of biosecurity Andrew Metcalfe said even though more than $1 billion was available this year to fund biosecurity protection, the development of future strategies was needed to better focus the spending.
"Biosecurity must evolve to meet the future needs of globalisation," he said.
CSIRO modelling shows even almost tripling investment in interventions out to 2025 would still result in increased residual biosecurity risk compared with 2014-2015 levels.
Queensland's chief biosecurity officer Malcolm Letts emphasised the importance of better data gathering and development of new technology.
More spending on detection dogs, 3D X-ray technology at airports and shipping container tracking technology.
For now, all the attention is on the development of a national biosecurity strategy which has been released for public feedback and comment.
Read that draft here.
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