Swan’s Lagoon Celebrating 50 years

Swan’s Lagoon, which is 125 km south-south-west of Townsville, was purchased by the Queensland Government as a beef cattle research station in 1961. It is situated within the seasonally-dry tropical spear grass region of North Queensland. The station was expanded from 80 km2 to 340 km2 by purchase of the adjoining Expedition block in 1978. The first advisory committee formed and initiated research in 1961. The median annual rainfall of 708 mm (28 inches) is highly variable, with over 80% usually falling in December–April. Annual evaporation is 2.03 metres. The 60% of useable area is mostly flat with low fertility duplex soils, of which more than 50% is phosphorus deficient. Natural spear grass-based pastures predominate over the station. Swan’s Lagoon research has contributed to understanding the biology of many aspects of beef production for northern Australia. Research outcomes have provided options to deal with the region’s primary challenges of weaning rates averaging less than 60%, annual growth rates averaging as little as 100 kg, high mortality rates and high management costs. All these relate to the region’s variable and highly seasonal rainfall—challenges that add to insect-borne viruses, ticks, buffalo fly and internal parasites. As well as the vast amount of practical beef production science produced at Swan’s Lagoon, generations of staff have been trained there to support beef producers throughout Queensland and northern Australia to increase their business efficiency. The Queensland Government has provided most of the funds for staffing and operations. Strong beef industry support is reflected in project funding from meat industry levies, managed by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and its predecessors. MLA has consistently provided the majority of operational research funding since the first grant for ‘Studies of management practices, adaption of different breeds and strains to tropical environments, and studies on tick survival and resistance’ in 1962–63. A large number of other agencies and commercial companies have also supported research.

Estimating Resource Requirements to Staff a Response to a Medium to Large Outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in Australia

A recent report to the Australian Government identified concerns relating to Australia's capacity to respond to a medium to large outbreak of FMD. To assess the resources required, the AusSpread disease simulation model was used to develop a plausible outbreak scenario that included 62 infected premises in five different states at the time of detection, 28 days after the disease entered the first property in Victoria. Movements of infected animals and/or contaminated product/equipment led to smaller outbreaks in NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania. With unlimited staff resources, the outbreak was eradicated in 63 days with 54 infected premises and a 98% chance of eradication within 3 months. This unconstrained response was estimated to involve 2724 personnel. Unlimited personnel was considered unrealistic, and therefore, the course of the outbreak was modelled using three levels of staffing and the probability of achieving eradication within 3 or 6 months of introduction determined. Under the baseline staffing level, there was only a 16% probability that the outbreak would be eradicated within 3 months, and a 60% probability of eradication in 6 months. Deployment of an additional 60 personnel in the first 3 weeks of the response increased the likelihood of eradication in 3 months to 68%, and 100% in 6 months. Deployment of further personnel incrementally increased the likelihood of timely eradication and decreased the duration and size of the outbreak. Targeted use of vaccination in high-risk areas coupled with the baseline personnel resources increased the probability of eradication in 3 months to 74% and to 100% in 6 months. This required 25 vaccination teams commencing 12 days into the control program increasing to 50 vaccination teams 3 weeks later. Deploying an equal number of additional personnel to surveillance and infected premises operations was equally effective in reducing the outbreak size and duration.