In 2021 Australia had no outbreaks of infectious diseases or similar occurrences caused by toxins that seemed to deviate from the normal pattern. Below is information on outbreaks of infectious disease and similar occurrences in animals.
Animal disease
The Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment is responsible for national coordination on animal health matters and for providing reports on Australia's animal health status, including regular reports to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the WHO.
The following sections contain information on significant animal disease events/issues in 2021. Australia publishes quarterly reports and biennial reports[1] on animal health incidents and status, as well as providing emergency, six-monthly and annual reports to the OIE[2]. Australia’s status for OIE-listed diseases for 2021 is shown in the table that follows. Diseases specific to aquatic animals can be found on the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s website (http://www.awe.gov.au/agriculture-land/animal/aquatic/reporting/reportab...).
Australia’s status for OIE-listed diseases of terrestrial animals, 2021
Disease | Status | Date of last occurrence and notes |
Multiple-species diseases | ||
Anthrax | Present | Limited distribution |
Aujeszky’s disease | Free | Never occurred |
Bluetongue | Viruses present | Restricted to specific zones of Australia. Sentinel herd and vector monitoring programs are in place |
Brucellosis (infection with Brucella abortus) | Free | Australia declared freedom in all terrestrial animal species in 1989 |
Brucellosis (infection with Brucella melitensis) | Free | Never occurred in animals |
Brucellosis (infection with Brucella suis) | Serological evidence | Maintained in feral pigs in parts of New South Wales and Queensland. Rare occurrence in domestic pigs. Sporadic detections in pig-hunting dogs (not OIE-notifiable occurrences) |
Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever | Free | Never occurred |
Echinococcosis (infection with Echinococcus granulosus) | Present |
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Echinococcosis (infection with Echinoccocus multilocularis) | Free | Never occurred |
Epizootic haemorrhagic disease | Virus present | Disease has not been reported |
Equine encephalomyelitis (Eastern) | Free | Never occurred |
Foot-and-mouth disease | Free | 1872. Australia is officially recognised by the OIE as free without vaccination |
Heartwater | Free | Never occurred |
Japanese encephalitis | Serological evidence | Detected seasonally in Torres Strait, however no confirmed clinical cases since 2004 |
Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (as defined by OIE Terrestrial Code) | Free | Australia declared freedom in 1997 from bovine tuberculosis; the last case in any species was reported in 2002. |
New World screw-worm (Cochliomyia hominivorax) | Free | Never occurred |
Old World screw-worm (Chrysomya bezziana) | Free | Never occurred |
Paratuberculosis | Present | National control and management programs are in place |
Q fever | Present |
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Rabies virus (infection with) | Free | 1867 |
Rift Valley fever (infection with Rift Valley fever virus) | Free | Never occurred |
Rinderpest | Free | 1923. With the global eradication of rinderpest in 2011, all countries are free |
Surra (infection with Trypanosoma evansi) | Free | 1907 (a consignment of imported camels) |
Trichinellosis (infection with Trichinella spp.) | Limited species present | Trichinella spiralis is not present. T. pseudospiralis is present in wildlife |
Tularaemia | Present | Detected in archived samples (collected 2002) from Tasmanian ringtail possums |
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West Nile fever | Australian variants present | |
Cattle diseases | ||
Bovine anaplasmosis | Present | Transmission mainly in areas of northern Australia |
Bovine babesiosis | Present | Transmission mainly in areas of northern Australia |
Bovine genital campylobacteriosis | Present |
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Bovine spongiform encephalopathy | Free | Never occurred. National Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Freedom Assurance Program includes surveillance. Australia has official OIE ‘negligible risk’ status |
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Bovine viral diarrhoea | Present | Bovine viral diarrhoea virus 1 (BVDV-1) is present. BVDV-2 has never occurred |
Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (infection with Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides SC) | Free | 1967. Australia declared freedom in 1973 and is officially recognised by the OIE as free |
Enzootic bovine leucosis | Free in dairy cattle. Very low prevalence in beef cattle | Australian dairy herd achieved freedom on 31 December 2012 |
Haemorrhagic septicaemia | Free | Never occurred. Strains of Pasteurella multocida are present, but not the 6b or 6e strains that cause haemorrhagic septicaemia |
Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis/infectious pustular vulvovaginitis | Present | Bovine herpesvirus (BHV) 1.2b is present; BHV-1.1 and 1.2a have never occurred |
Lumpy skin disease | Free | Never occurred |
Theileriosis | Free | Theileria orientalis is present in Australia but OIE-listed species T. parva and T. Annulata are not |
Trichomonosis | Present | |
Trypanosomosis (tsetse borne) | Free | Never occurred |
Sheep and goat diseases | ||
Caprine arthritis–encephalitis | Present | Voluntary accreditation schemes exist |
Contagious agalactia | Free | Mycoplasma agalactiae has been isolated, but Australian strains do not produce agalactia in sheep |
Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia | Free | Never occurred |
Enzootic abortion of ewes, ovine chlamydiosis (infection with Chlamydophila abortus) | Free | Never occurred |
Maedi–visna | Free | Never occurred |
Nairobi sheep disease | Free | Never occurred |
Ovine epididymitis (infection with Brucella ovis) | Present | Voluntary accreditation schemes exist in all states |
Peste des petits ruminants (infection with small ruminant morbillivirus) | Free | Never occurred. Australia is officially recognised by OIE as free |
Salmonellosis (Salmonella Abortusovis) | Free | Never occurred. Surveillance has shown no evidence of infection in sheep |
Scrapie | Free | 1952. National Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Freedom Assurance Program includes surveillance. Atypical scrapie has been detected several times. |
Sheep pox and goat pox | Free | Never occurred |
Equine diseases | ||
African horse sickness | Free | Never occurred. Australia is officially recognised by OIE as free |
Contagious equine metritis | Free | 1980 |
Dourine | Free | Never occurred |
Equine encephalomyelitis (Western) | Free | Never occurred |
Equine infectious anaemia | Present | Limited distribution and sporadic occurrence |
Equine influenza | Free | 2007. Australia self-declared freedom according to OIE standards in 2008 |
Equine piroplasmosis | Free | 1976 |
Equine rhinopneumonitis (infection with Equid herpesvirus-1) | Present |
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Equine viral arteritis | Serological evidence |
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Glanders (infection with Burkholderia mallei) | Free | 1891 |
Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis | Free | Never occurred |
Swine diseases | ||
African swine fever | Free | Never occurred |
Classical swine fever | Free | 1962. Australia is officially recognised by OIE as free |
Nipah virus encephalitis | Free | Never occurred |
Porcine cysticercosis (infection with Taenia solium) | Free | Never occurred |
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome | Free | Never occurred |
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Transmissible gastroenteritis | Free | Never occurred |
Avian diseases | ||
Avian chlamydiosis | Present |
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Avian infectious bronchitis | Present |
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Avian infectious laryngotracheitis | Present |
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Avian influenza (including infection with high pathogenicity avian influenza viruses) in poultry | Free from 26 February 2021 | 2020. Following an outbreak involving six properties and three different strains of avian influenza (H7N7 HPAI, H5N2 LPAI and H7N6 LPAI) in July–August 2020, Australia officially achieved HPAI disease freedom on 26 February 2021. |
Influenza A viruses of high pathogenicity in birds other than poultry, including wild birds | Free | HPAI viruses have not been detected in Australian wild birds, other than a single detection of HPAI H7 virus in one feral Eurasian starling trapped inside an affected poultry shed during the 1985 HPAI H7 virus outbreak. |
Avian mycoplasmosis (infection with Mycoplasma gallisepticum) | Present |
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Avian mycoplasmosis (infection with Mycoplasma synoviae) | Present |
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Duck virus hepatitis | Free | Never occurred |
Fowl typhoid | Free | 1952 |
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Infectious bursal disease (Gumboro disease) | Present | Infectious bursal disease occurs in a mild form and was last reported in 2004. Very virulent strains are not present |
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Newcastle disease in poultry (infection with Newcastle disease virus) | Lentogenic viruses present | Virulent Newcastle disease last occurred in poultry in 2002. In August 2011, pigeon paramyxovirus not previously reported in Australia was detected in hobby pigeons in Victoria. Disease caused by this virushas not spread to poultry |
Pullorum disease | Not reported | Last reported in 1992. Salmonella Pullorum has been eradicated from commercial chicken flocks |
Turkey rhinotracheitis | Free | Never occurred |
Lagomorph diseases | ||
Myxomatosis | Present | Used as a biological control agent for wild rabbits |
Rabbit haemorrhagic disease | Present | Used as a biological control agent for wild rabbits. A new strain was detected in 2015 and another released in 2017. |
Bee diseases | ||
American foulbrood (infection of honey bees with Paenibacillus larvae) | Present |
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European foulbrood (infection of honey bees with Melissococcus plutonius) | Present |
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Infestation of honey bees with Acarapis woodi | Free | Never occurred |
Infestation of honey bees with Tropilaelaps spp | Free | Never occurred |
Infestation of small hive beetle with Aethina tumida | Present | Restricted distribution |
Varroosis (infestation of honey bees with Varroa spp.) | Free | Varroa destructor has never been reported in Australia. Incursions of V. jacobsoni were identified and stamped out in June 2016 and April 2020. The response is currently in proof-of-freedom phase. |
Other diseases | ||
Camel pox | Free | Never occurred |
Leishmaniosis | Australian variant, Leishmania macropodum, present | Rare. Australian variant was first isolated in 2000 from macropods and occurs infrequently in a small region near Darwin. In 2017, it was isolated in a new species, captive Nabarlek (pygmy rock wallaby, Petrogale concinna) in the Northern Territory. Occasional imported case of L. infantum with no known local transmission. |
Comments on selected OIE-listed diseases
Anthrax
Anthrax is on the list of nationally notifiable diseases and is subject to compulsory government controls, including quarantine, disposal of carcasses, and vaccination and tracing of at-risk animals and their products. Incidents of anthrax in Australian livestock occur sporadically and generally in a defined geographical region confined to the northern and north-eastern districts of Victoria up to Central New South Wales. Anthrax is detected occasionally in southern Queensland. Anthrax has never been recorded in the Northern Territory. South Australia’s and Tasmania’s last recorded anthrax outbreaks were in 1914 and 1933 respectively. The last case in Western Australia was an isolated case in 1994. Anthrax is considered a Tier 1 Security Sensitive Biological Agent in Australia and is subject to requirements under the National Health Security Act 2007.
2. Location and approximate area affected
7. Detailed symptoms, when applicable
8. Deviation(s) from the normal pattern as regards