Reporting on emergency animal disease outbreaks

Emergency animal disease outbreaks can have devastating impacts on Victorian livestock industries and are a matter of huge relevance and consequence for regional media and its audience. Outbreaks can also be complex and difficult to report on.

In 2023 the Rural Press Club of Victoria and Agriculture Victoria hosted an online workshop discussing the ins and outs of covering emergency animal disease outbreaks, with panellists including Victorian Chief Veterinary Officer Graeme Cooke, Victorian producer Tim Kingma, Former Agriculture Victoria Chief Executive Matt Lowe, and Justine Severin from Agriculture Victoria’s media team.

See their top tips and the full webinar below.

Don’t expect all the answers at the beginning of an outbreak

While reporters want to get the story – in its entirety – as soon as possible, that’s an unlikely prospect in the early stages of an outbreak.

“I think that’s a crucially important thing for everyone to understand is that for the first few weeks, maybe even months, there will be a period of complexity, and ambiguity,” Victorian Chief Veterinary Officer Graeme Cooke said.

“That is just the fact of that disease, and you have to bear with it.

“But, of course, we as a Department would be doing as much as possible to keep people updated.”

Understand the broader context, and consequences

The livestock industry doesn’t start and end at the Victorian borders, and emergency outbreaks garner huge interest both nationally and internationally due to the consequences of potential spreading.

Former Agriculture Victoria CEO Matt Lowe said it was important to remember that biosecurity “sits in a national context”, meaning greater complexity and broader ramifications which can arise from your reporting.

“There’ll be a lot of interest in the reporting, not just locally, but internationally as well. Particularly for Lumpy Skin or Foot and Mouth, which has trade implications in terms of exports,” he said.

“Getting what the disease is right, is really important, and there’s certainly been cases of misreporting or hoaxing which has led to really significant impacts in other jurisdictions.”

Use the comms departments

Former Agriculture Victoria CEO Matt Lowe made it clear to the webinar that the Department wants to work with the media during any outbreak.

“It’s in our interest to absolutely make sure we’re available to the media,” Mr Lowe said.

“There’ll be a lot of uncertainty, and also there’ll be a lot of work to get people’s head around why our response is the way it is, what the disease is, what the control actions are, what people’s obligations are – both as livestock owners and as the general public.”

“We’re on a shared ticket in terms of what we want to achieve.”

Agriculture Victoria media team member Justine Severin also stressed that commentary would be largely delivered from subject matter experts, who will typically be extremely busy during outbreaks. So, give the media team as much notice of a request as possible, understand the expert you’re chasing may not be immediately available, and try to be patient.

“We’re looking at working together. We really want to work with the media is our extension in that situation,” she said.

Don’t forget that this is a human story too

Emergency Animal disease outbreaks have human victims too.

Farmer Tim Kingma wanted journalists to ensure they understand these stories need to be told with an understanding that people working in the livestock industry will be doing it tough – and their struggles can be further exacerbated by poor reporting.

“There’s gotta be an understanding there,” he said.

“Most staff are in a fairly vulnerable position… part of the reason they are a farmer is they care for their animals, and if all of a sudden, you know, there’s a risk to those animals, they treat them like their own.”

“Last year, during Japanese Encephalitis, our farm was one of the farms that did have it, and it was really hard for our staff to see, at the end of the day, that piglets were born dead… and that’s a real shock to them.”

Graeme Cooke’s work in the UK during a Foot and Mouth outbreak gave him an insight into the human toll of an animal disease outbreak.

“That was a very difficult period of time for some farmers, and there were suicides and other mental issues clearly related with that,” Mr Cooke said.

“There were some members of the farming community who just didn’t cope with the media attention, and I think I think, from the best of intentions, the media was trying to understand, but it didn’t work for those people.”

Put down the car keys and pick up the phone

Understanding the biosecurity risks and your own obligations while reporting on an outbreak is of the utmost importance, particularly if your reporting takes you into the field.

One of the biggest, and most obvious risks, is journalists travelling to farms which have experienced infections, in order to film video, snap photos or conduct interviews.

Graeme Cooke’s advice is simple: Sometimes it’s safest to just use the phone.

“An infected premise is called an infected premises because there’s a real danger of infection spreading from it,” Mr Cook said.

“So no, it’s not a good idea for members of the press to go onto an infected premises. Of course, they are free to talk to people who have been involved in the ownership of the premises, but do that from a distance.

“Talking to members of the farming community at that time, to be honest, is probably best done by telephone or by video call.”