Local Community Preparedness for an Emergency Animal Disease Outbreak

For a nation like Australia, which exports around 80% of its total agricultural production, and where the processed food industry is the largest employer in regional areas, the risk of a major outbreak of an Emergency Animal Disease (EAD), such as Foot-and-Mouth, is a major concern. An outbreak of such a disease would devastate Australia's livestock industry, cause severe financial hardship, result in considerable social disruption for whole communities and threaten the national economy. While there are national strategy plans in place to quickly and effectively deal with an outbreak, there is some uncertainty as to how communities will cope if a crisis occurs. The purpose of this research was to assess the level of preparedness at the individual farmer and small community level for a possible emergency animal disease outbreak and identify those social factors that facilitate or inhibit the implementation and maintenance of disease control plans. The research also assessed the potential social impact of an EAD outbreak upon small rural communities. The research comprised three independent studies.