An Australian traveler who brought back two McDonald’s egg and beef sausage McMuffins from Bali was hit with a hefty punishment for failing to declare them.
The traveler was fined $2,664 for not declaring the McMuffins upon arrival from Bali to Australia due to the Australian government’s aggressive campaign against foot-and-mouth illness.
At Darwin Airport, biosecurity detection dog Zinta was successful in finding the contraband.
Murray Watt, the minister of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, chastised the traveler for bringing in food that might be contaminated with the very contagious foot-and-mouth illness.
‘This will be the most expensive Maccas meal this passenger ever has, this fine is twice the cost of an airfare to Bali, but I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia’s strict biosecurity measures, and recent detections show you will be caught,’ Murray Watt said.
‘Australia is FMD-free, and we want it to stay that way,’ he added.
As the threat of foot-and-mouth disease escalates, biosecurity has been stepped up at airports all around Australia in recent weeks.
The sickness has been spreading throughout Indonesia for months, and just lately, the virus was found in Bali, a popular tourist destination for Australians.
The cattle business has been warned that if foot-and-mouth disease were introduced via careless travelers into Australia, it could cost the sector $80 billion in the following ten years as the nation would lose its FMD-free status.
If the disease invaded Australia, Mr. Watt has previously stated that a three-day immediate halt to animal movements would be put in place.
‘The reason this would be such a devastating blow is that the rest of the world would treat Australia as having foot and mouth disease, which would pretty much shut down our livestock export industry overnight,’ he told the ABC.
‘But there is a comprehensive plan that’s been developed over a number of years between federal and state governments about how we manage outbreaks (including) movement controls.’
‘I feel very confident that Australia’s world-leading biosecurity system stands us in very good stead to resist this outbreak arriving.’
Most Australians would be impacted by an outbreak since prices for everything from a morning coffee to a takeout burger and the weekly supermarket shop will increase, potentially costing the economy up to $80 billion.