News
Simulated biosecurity response a success for WA
23 Jun 2016
By Dr Claire Petterson, AHA Training Officer
Exercise control team keeping the exercise on track.
Exercise APOLLO was held in Bunbury, WA, on the 17-19th May, 2016. Exercise APOLLO was a simulated biosecurity emergency response exercise. It was the first exercise of its type to be held in WA for 10 years, as part of Boosting Biosecurity Defences project, made possible by Royalties for Regions. Planning the exercise took over 12 months, led by the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA) with assistance from other agencies.
Over 150 people participated in the exercise, including DAFWA personnel, Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, Animal Health Australia and the Rapid Response Team. There was industry involvement from WA Farmers, Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia, Cattle Council, Australian Lot Feeders Association, Wool Producers and Dairy Australia. The WA Government agencies of Police, Health, Environment, Fire and Emergency Services and Main Roads also participated.
Exercise Director Shane Bryant debriefs participants after final activities.
The aim of the exercise was to assess DAFWA’s preparedness to respond to a major biosecurity incident. The exercise built on work undertaken as part of Exercise Odysseus in 2014, which was a national activity involving a fictional outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in QLD and NSW. FMD is a major emergency animal disease that affects cloven hoofed animals, including cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, camels, alpacas and deer. FMD would severely impact livestock industries if it was to occur in Australia. Exercise APOLLO provided participants with an opportunity to work though emergency response procedures and systems in a simulated live-like situation.
The exercise involved participants working from a simulated Local Control Centre and State Coordination Centre. All external components and field work were simulated by the Exercise Control team. Over 100 DAFWA staff had received training in emergency management before the exercise. The exercise provided an opportunity for them to practice the roles they would assume in a real response. The exercise assessed the ability of DAFWA to plan for large-scale animal destruction and disposal. The exercise also provided an opportunity to test MAX, DAFWA’s new emergency response business system platform, in a simulated incident.
Participants demonstrated great enthusiasm, commitment and teamwork in their approach to the exercise. The exercise was highly commended for its logistics, planning and conduct. For more information about Exercise APOLLO, see the Department of Agriculture and Food WA.
Images supplied by DAFWA.