The threat of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has prompted Australia's $32 billion red meat sector to consider freezing cattle semen and eggs to use in future breeding programs to protect their bloodlines.
The highly contagious animal virus that spreads through livestock such as cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats has been detected in Bali, putting Australian producers on high alert.
An incursion would mean millions of animals could be destroyed, undoing generations of breeding programs designed to produce the best animals for sale in domestic and international markets.
It has led some stud breeders to investigate the expensive option of freezing and storing bull semen and cow embryos as insurance if the herd had to be rebuilt.
Veterinarian and bovine specialist Ced Wise said along with record high prices for cattle, the combined pressures meant he was the busiest he had been in 46 years in the industry.
He said small and large studs were inquiring about storing their genetics, and for some of the larger operations that meant thousands of animals.
"They're planning on doing quite large numbers," he said.
"You would have to … to maintain your genetic diversity in the herd and to subsequently rebuild it from the genetic material you've stored."
Dr Wise said artificial breeding techniques are expensive, but breeders were weighing up the costs against the risks.
"Putting an embryo on ice, putting it in liquid nitrogen for preservation which we can do quite successfully, will cost you in the order of $200 to $300," he said.
"Depending on which technology you use … that should equate to about $400 to $600 per live calf on the ground.
"It's not a small exercise, it's a risk management tool that needs a lot of thought. But people are certainly giving it that thought because it could be a disaster."
While storing bull semen used for fertilisation was cheaper at between $4 to $5 per straw, without the embryos as well some bloodlines would only be storing half the genetics they had spent decades developing.
Dr Wise said while breeders would have to make careful choices about what they preserve, it could be an important safeguard against all manner of biosecurity threats.
"It's critical because we've got genetics developed in Australia, unique to Australia, and the Australian environment," he said.
"We've imported genetics from time to time in most breeds from herds overseas but they've all been adapted to Australian environments."
For Australia's beef industry specific traits like heat and tick resistance, meat quality and fertility in the country's northern climates are unique to animals bred here, and would not be easily replaced by bloodlines from overseas.
UK breeder regrets not freezing more genetics
Scottish Charolais breeder Hamish Goldie had to cull his entire herd during the FMD outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2001.
About 6 million animals were destroyed in that outbreak which Mr Goldie said was a pretty grim time for everybody.
He urged Australian producers to consider preserving their bloodlines while they could.
"Not that many people had any plans in place to store genetics and maybe looking back it's something we should have thought of," he said.
"We really didn't have the opportunity to get far enough ahead to plan to preserve any genetics."
While Mr Goldie was able to rebuild using cows from areas unaffected by the outbreak, he said it was made harder by not having access to his own genetics.
"Seriously, consider flushing some of your best genetics," he said.
"Try and get a store of some of your family lines that are doing really well."
Keeping FMD out still the best insurance
But capturing a whole herd's genetic diversity is a huge task, according to a stud breeder in Queensland's South Burnett.
Alice Greenup and her husband Rick breed Santa Gertrudis cattle near Kumbia and Eidsvold, and she is also an independent northern director on the Cattle Council of Australia.
The couple's stud has 2,500 stud cows and a run of 600 bulls from which they select a sale team of 130 bulls and the remainder sold as paddock bulls.
"It's the complexity of dealing with that volume of cattle … you'd have preserve a huge number of embryos and semen to even begin to capture the diversity," she said.
"Then you'd also want other studs to be doing the same so down the track you have that other diversity to access as well."
The stud breeder said it was not something she was exploring for now, though the stud does already store some of its genetics.
She said the threat of disease incursion was not new to the industry, and the livestock sector had to remain vigilant.
"This is not just a short-term thing, this is potentially going to be at our doorstep for seven to 10 years," she said.
"Potential incursions have always been a risk and it's just something we need to live with and learn to deal with in the long term."
