A new $57 million biosecurity lab was unveiled at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, in Sydney's rural far southwest, on Monday morning. The high-tech facility near Camden will employ 180 people and will focus on equine and swine flu, Hendra, mad cow disease and foot and mouth.
Biosecurity lab to detect horse diseases
New high-tech facility near Camden will employ 180 people and will focus on equine and swine flu, and Hendra virus disease.
"The outbreak of exotic disease can have an extremely detrimental impact on our regional communities," Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said.
"If you get an outbreak of disease into a wheat crop or a particular type of animal it can have devastating consequences not just for that breed but also for the people who look after them."
The NSW government has funded the lab, but research generated by the facility will be shared across the nation.
That should be welcome news for Queensland landholders who've experienced several outbreaks of Hendra virus fairly recently.
There have also been outbreaks of the disease in northern NSW and Ms Hodgkinson stressed that disease respects no boundaries.
Ms Hodgkinson told an audience at the formal opening of the facility that a national outbreak of a disease like foot and mouth could cost up to $13 billion.
Premier Barry O'Farrell said hundreds of thousands of disease samples will be tested at the lab every year.