Testing cattle for brucellosis in 1978.
COUNTRIES around the world are still looking to Australia and its experts from the Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign (BTEC) to advise on getting rid of the diseases, despite it being more than 50 years since the program first started.
BTEC has been recognised as a world-leading achievement in animal health, as Australia is one of very few countries to have successfully eradicated bovine tuberculosis (TB), at scale.
The BTEC program was launched in 1970, after the United States and Germany threatened trade restrictions on Australian beef exports, despite both countries having TB themselves.
Older readers will remember the program required every cattle herd to be assessed and in many cases every animal tested. Adding to the challenge, the test was somewhat unreliable, and took time for results to be made available. And the lack of boundary fences on many properties in extensive northern Australia only added to the challenge.
If a positive infection was found a protracted eradication program was required and, in some cases, entire herds had to be sent to the meatworks with the Government compensating producers for their stock. To the best of one retired stock inspector’s memory, the original compensation was $120 a head.
BTEC presentations still happening around the world
Dr Ron Glanville
Dr Ron Glanville started his career as a Queensland Government veterinarian at Roma in 1978 where his focus was on brucellosis, moving later to Mount Isa to oversee the TB eradication program in the northwest of the state. Dr Glanville later went on to become the Chief Biosecurity Officer and Chief Veterinary Officer for Queensland and is now a biosecurity consultant.
He recently presented to a World Organisation for Animal Health event in Beijing, China on brucellosis eradication.
“It was an incredible achievement eradicating both bovine brucellosis and TB and not many countries have been able to do it – especially Tuberculosis,” said Dr Glanville.
TB maps. Click on image for a larger view.
“It was a $1.2 billion program over nearly 30 years and required industry and government to work together.”
Industry funded 50 percent through levies, the Federal Government funded 20pc and the state governments contributed the remaining 30pc.
Strict controls are missing from other countries eradication programs
TB is still a major issue in Europe and the US now, despite attempts to control or eradicate the disease.
“Australia was successful because we got tough,” Dr Glanville said.
“I think one of the most important things was it was a government-industry partnership, which is how we handle disease eradication or control programs now and that all started with BTEC where we formed a formal partnership between industry and government and they shared the cost.
“Industry paid for half of the program, so they had a strong say in the management and decision making so industry was right behind the program.
“We had agreed technical standards across Australia, all states had good legal backing to do what needed to be done, we had good surveillance through the abattoirs so that we could know what properties actually had either of the two diseases and that is where we developed our tracing system, NLIS is based on what we established in the BTEC days where we registered all cattle properties and tail tag all animals when they were sold.
“We also had very strict controls in terms of testing animals, movement controls, destroying infected animals and that is what a lot of other countries have lacked.”
Dr Glanville had also presented a tuberculosis eradication presentation to an international TB conference in Ireland in 2022 and said Australia’s movement controls was one of the aspects of most interest to the audience.
“Having to test animals and prove you were free of the disease before you could move animals to another property, that was a huge incentive for producers to get in and do the right thing to get the job done,” he said.
Compensation was contentious
The producer compensation was one of the more contentious parts of BTEC. As more and more cattle were destroyed the price of breeders rose, meaning the compensation was well below market value.
Townsville in North Queensland at the time hosted three large export and domestic abattoirs: Stuart, FJ Walker and Bohle. At times, their daily kills were made up entirely of BTEC destock cattle.
The cost to replace breeders rose so much higher that what the government compensation offered, that some producers were forced out of the industry.
As the program progressed the compensation was bought more in line with market value and from the mid 1980s other assistance measures such as mustering and freight subsidies were also available.
It took over 20 years but Australia achieved freedom
“A lot of people said it couldn’t be done,” Dr Glanville said.
However, in 1989 Australia was declared free of bovine brucellosis and free of TB on 31 December 1997 after 27 years of BTEC.
However, some final isolated clean-up operations were required after those dates, with the last confirmed cases detected in 1990 for brucellosis and 2000 for TB.
“Stock inspectors were the heart of the program, they made things happen, they were out on properties every day, working with property owners and I am forever grateful for the job the stock inspectors did, we wouldn’t have achieved freedom without them,” Dr Glanville said.
“Private vets and lab staff were also vital in getting the testing done and we should also recognise that many producers made huge sacrifices to get the job done.”
Could BTEC work today?
Dr Glanville said he is often asked if BTEC or a similar disease eradication program could be implemented and successful today.
“I am not sure – in today’s money, BTEC would cost more than $3 billion dollars and that is a huge investment,” Dr Glanville said.
“We had to depopulate a lot of herds back then, we were shooting animals from helicopters at times – I am not sure we would have the social licence. It would be more difficult now than it was then.”
Excellent article - what a time for all, vets/ pilots in particular - and here's a fascinating doco I dug up from the BTEC time, it follows one of the BETEC vets, David Bradley, who flew his Cessna to various Cattle Stations over vast distances from Kununurra, WA, view here: https://rfttejobs.com/blog/rftte-podcast-book-audiobook-recommendations/
quote - “We had to depopulate a lot of herds back then, we were shooting animals from helicopters at times"
I wonder does the good doctor have any idea how many were shot, both of bovine and buffalo from the air, how many flying hours were involved and that nearly all of the many pilots and operators operated well outside their lawful CASA Regulations and Aviation Acts to support the massive program? Nowhere near enough, let alone any credit has ever been given the rotary aeronautical Industry for their contributions.
I have a book 'Beating the odds in a big country' presented to me by the author Robert Lehane of CSIRO. It is a "must read" for epidemiologists.
I was a Commonwealth Veterinary Officer stationed at Bowen abattoir in 1974. Some properties had about 10% of cattle condemned for TB at slaughter. Of special note was that the meat inspectors could do all the extra inspections of lymph nodes as required for TB suspects on the moving chain. This included the popliteal lymph node. Later on I was involved with the brucellosis campaign at Beaudesert abattoir.
I started work in 1974 in the Slaughtering Meat Inspection Branch of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. My career started as an on-line meat inspector in South-East Queensland abattoirs, then a regional manager in Far North Queensland ,and, finally, state manager of operations based in Brisbane. When BTEC started we had an at least one inspector, and sometimes more, in every export and domestic abattoir in Queensland. We collected and dispatched, to government laboratories, samples from suspect TB carcases and blood from every breeder animal slaughtered. We worked with meat companies to establish systems to maintain identification of animals until their carcases passed post-mortem inspection. Tail tags, ear tags and brands had to be correlated to their carcases. As Dr Ron Glanville stated “NLIS is based on what we established in the BTEC day”.
With stock inspectors in the field, meat inspectors in the abattoirs, and laboratory staff we made a great team and I don’t think we could have achieved what we did without our close working relationships. This was reflected in other states of Australia.
A number of our inspectors did get brucellosis themselves. I’m lucky, mine was only a mild case but others suffered significantly.
Blair Anderson (Jock) was the manager of the BTEC program in the Slaughtering and Meat Inspection Branch and with his drive and tenacity we achieved all the milestone set for us. I personally would like to thank the Queensland meat inspectors for their dedication and professionalism during the BTEC program.
I think we can all be proud of our contribution to achieving TB and brucellosis freedom, of which the meat industry is still reaping the rewards.
I started in BTEC program in 1971 in Bohle then Ross River Meatworks as a meat inspector/ BTEC collection of samples, blood & TB. Some carcasses had grapeyTB,I've seen up to 40 carcasses condemned in a morning from some vast properties in the north gulf country, Yes we were quite busy collecting samples & checking brands on hides for some trace back. with stockies on off season plus even went on chopper that shot scrubber bulls in Dunbar.
I started work in 1974 in the Slaughtering Meat Inspection Branch of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. My career started as an on-line meat inspector in South-East Queensland abattoirs, then a regional manager in Far North Queensland ,and, finally, state manager of operations based in Brisbane. When BTEC started we had an at least one inspector, and sometimes more, in every export and domestic abattoir in Queensland. We collected and dispatched, to government laboratories, samples from suspect TB carcases and blood from every breeder animal slaughtered. We worked with meat companies to establish systems to maintain identification of animals until their carcases passed post-mortem inspection. Tail tags, ear tags and brands had to be correlated to their carcases. As Dr Ron Glanville stated “NLIS is based on what we established in the BTEC day”.
With stock inspectors in the field, meat inspectors in the abattoirs, and laboratory staff we made a great team and I don’t think we could have achieved what we did without our close working relationships. This was reflected in other states of Australia.
A number of our inspectors did get brucellosis themselves. I’m lucky, mine was only a mild case but others suffered significantly.
Blair Anderson (Jock) was the manager of the BTEC program in the Slaughtering and Meat Inspection Branch and with his drive and tenacity we achieved all the milestone set for us. I personally would like to thank the Queensland meat inspectors for their dedication and professionalism during the BTEC program.
I think we can all be proud of our contribution to achieving TB and brucellosis freedom, of which the meat industry is still reaping the rewards.
Thank you Lydia. I was a youngish journalist when the BTEC program was underway in Queensland (BTB in the NT). I remember some of the anguish caused for individual producers -- and accept that, at times, the process wasn't perfect -- but, in hindsight, it showed that a properly run producer-govt program could result in a desired outcome that benefited the whole industry in the long term. It also helped create the disease free buffalo business in the NT while eradicating wild buffalo that were reinfecting commercial cattle herds as well as eliminating the environmental devastation that buffalo were causing in the Top End wetlands. Yes, many hard decisions had to be made. But it was a blueprint for how subsequent eradication programs could be successfully run. If only the fire ant eradication program could take a leaf out of the BTEC book, we might see a similar outcome?
As many have said it was an amazing achievement and the beef industry has substantially benefited. Dr Glanville and many other vvets, stockies, producers etc were the backbone. It would be much more difficult now - social licence including animal welfare, significantly more people to deal with as properties have been split up and sold to many different owners, there is significantly more infrastructure including roads were stock can be moved undetected, business people and people generally are less likely to tow the line and less like to do what authority says. However, if you find enough people enthusiastically dedicated & willing & strong to take negative opinions on the chin it could still get done. Glad Beef Central recognised the achievement. Advances in infrastructure and veterinary science can also be a benefit