P.PSH.0712 Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Freedom Assurance Program (TSEFAP)

Summary

​A number of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) affect people and animals. Australia enjoys freedom from TSEs, of which BSE (Mad Cow Disease) and Scrapie of sheep are of most interest to the livestock industries. BSE has never been recorded in Australia, whereas Scrapie occurred once, in imported sheep on a single property in 1952, and was promptly eradicated. This lends the country a considerable competitive advantage with its overseas trading partners. Maintenance of this disease-free status requires surveillance and monitoring, with regular reports to the international animal health organisation (OIE).

The TSEFAP is an ongoing surveillance program run by Animal Health Australia (AHA) and has the following objectives:

• To carry out sufficient surveillance to meet international requirements and assure trading partners, markets and consumers that Australian animals and animal products are free of TSEs and to ensure the early detection of a TSE (should it occur).
• To demonstrate that no restricted animal material is fed to ruminants.
  To manage the risks posed by animals imported from countries that have had cases of TSE.
• To communicate Australia's favourable status for TSEs consistently and efficiently.
  To ensure Australia is adequately prepared to address any TSE case, should it occur.
• To identify emerging TSE-related issues and provide a framework for their management, if required.
• To provide a forum to involve all stakeholders in addressing animal-related TSE issues.To increase the efficiency and consistency of management of animal-related TSE activities.

The TSEFAP was previously funded jointly by state/territory governments and the dairy, wool and red meat industries. This project constitutes the grass-fed beef and sheep meat components of the industry contributions for the surveillance component of the TSEFAP from 1st December 2014 until 30th June 2017.

AHA publishes an annual report on the TSEFAP on their website. This project report incorporates the three AHA TSEFAP reports for the years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16.