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Exercise Minotaur: National Foot and Mouth Disease Simulation
Overview
In September 2002, Australia successfully tested its ability to deal with a hypothetical outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in a national simulation called Exercise Minotaur.
Background
Minotaur was a desktop exercise focusing on testing decision-making and the integration of Australia’s national arrangements to deal with a large-scale animal disease emergency.
More than 1,100 people from government agencies and livestock industry bodies took part in the simulation — the largest exercise of its type ever held in Australia.
Australia has been free of foot and mouth disease since 1872, and has strong quarantine measures in place to ensure continued freedom from this devastating disease.
However, the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the United Kingdom and European Union was a strong reminder of the need to be well prepared for the threat of a major disease outbreak.
In July 2001 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to hold a major simulation of a foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak to test Australia’s whole of government framework of preparedness, response and recovery in the face of a major disease outbreak.
Exercise Minotaur examined:
- the integration of national arrangements between levels of government and with industry
- administrative arrangements supporting the operations
- the capacity of our resources to manage an FMD outbreak and its consequences
- the logistical arrangements
- the effectiveness of disease control policies and strategies as described in AUSVETPLAN
- trade management arrangements, and
- socio-economic and recovery strategies and processes.
Under the scenario, three states or territories were hypothetically ‘infected’ and needed to respond at a decision-making level. This included the activation of Local Disease Control Centres and State Disease Control Headquarters.
The ‘disease-free’ States and Territories were also involved in response activities: managing requests for resources for operational activities, animal surveillance, responding to the economic and social consequences of closed international markets for all Australian agricultural/ livestock products, and cross border transport and trade issues.
Other aspects of a foot and mouth disease outbreak examined included:
- impacts on the dairy, beef, pork and sheep industries, feed lots, live animal export and feral animals
- impacts on other rural industries such as those concerned with wool and grain
- impacts on rural communities
- impacts on the Australian economy and non-rural communities and industries.
As a paper-based or ‘desktop’ activity, Exercise Minotaur did not include any physical field operations or actual communication with other countries.
The decision to hold Exercise Minotaur followed a funding boost of nearly $600 million dollars in the May 2001 Federal budget for Australia’s border agencies - Australian Customs Service and the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS). This funding boost upgraded quarantine facilities at international airports and mail centres around the country.
The need for protection against exotic pests and disease incursions at Australia’s borders was supported by the findings of a major Productivity Commission report into the potential economic, environmental and social impact of a foot and mouth disease outbreak in Australia, released in June 2002.
The Commission’s worst-case scenario involved key beef and lamb export markets being closed for 15 months. The cost of a foot and mouth disease incursion under this scenario would be between $8 billion and $13 billion of gross domestic product and its consequences would be felt for nearly 10 years after the event.
Even an isolated outbreak that was brought rapidly under control was estimated to potentially cost $2 to $3 billion of gross domestic product.
Exercise Report
Exercise Minotaur Evaluation Report 
Word [614kb] 
PDF [1.4mb]
Other Exercises
- Exercise Tethys - Aquatic
- Exercise Eleusis '05 - Avian Influenza (bird flu)
If you would like further information about the above exercises and emergency preparedness, please email the Emergency Risk Management Unit.
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