Australia in biosecurity 'hotspot'

Australia is "encased by a ring of fire" with modelling by international experts showing Asia to be the most likely source of the next global infectious disease outbreak.

The panel of biosecurity and infectious disease experts also warn that a "fortress Australia" approach is not enough to stop bio-threats entering the country.

Instead Australia must also help develop the region's capacity to deal with and prevent infectious disease outbreaks, they say.

The presentation came ahead of today's launch, by the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre, of the Biosecurity Risk Intelligence Scanning Committee.

Committee chair Professor John Edwards, Dean of the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at Murdoch University, says the group aims to predict emerging threats and inform research priorities.

"Australia has some of the best biosecurity systems in the world," Edwards says.

"But biosecurity is something you can never do well enough."

Edwards says greater attention needs to be given to animal viruses as up to 70% have zoonotic potential - can be passed to humans.

Priority assessments
He says the new committee will as a priority assess the risk of bat-borne viruses such as the Hendra-like Nipah virus, the dengue-like Chikungunya virus and Bluetongue virus. The later is spread by a biting midge and causes serious disease in livestock, particularly sheep.

Dr Peter Daszak, executive director of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, says modelling of the likely areas where new viruses will emerge shows the region to the north of Australia to be most at risk.

"Australia is surrounded by the hotspot for emerging diseases and they are areas with incredibly low surveillance effort," he says.

"To understand the risk of new viruses we have to know what viruses wildlife carry, and of course we don't.

"We need to understand what makes them emerge and deal with that before they emerge."

'Hottest of hotspots'
Daszak says more than half of all emerging disease come from wildlife, yet estimates suggest 99.8% of viral diversity is unknown.

While it is hard to predict what the next pandemic will be, Daszak says "we can get a handle on where the next one will come from".

"The countries that border Australia are becoming the hottest of the hot spots," he says, adding we are "encased" by a biosecurity "ring of fire".

"The networks of trade and travel mean we are extremely connected to areas where diseases are emerging and therefore [Australia is] at high risk," Daszak says.

His view is supported by World Health Organization deputy regional advisor for communicable disease surveillance and response Dr Julie Hall.

Hall says the Asia-Pacific region has all the "drivers that enhance or create an environment" where new disease can emerge.

This includes high population density, significant poultry populations, and natural disasters and climate change causing large migrations of population.

'One new disease a year'
Hall says 70% of new emerging diseases are expected to come from animals and globally during the past 30 years on average one new disease a year has emerged.

She says the emerging threats in the region at present come from vector-borne disease, spread by mosquitoes.

This includes Dengue fever and Chikungunya virus.

However, Hall warns the most serious threat to the nation's biosecurity is "influenza fatigue" where interest wanes in the field because the threatened pandemic does not arrive.

This would mean a cut in funding to safeguards and the erosion of systems that prevent the pandemics from occurring.

Source: ABC