Exercise Odysseus (2014)

Exercise Odysseus was a series of 48 discussion exercises and field-based activities that enhanced government and industry preparedness to implement a national livestock standstill in response to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
The exercise took place in 2014 and early 2015, involving over 1600 participants from government, industry and non-government organisations.

The exercise program focused on implementation issues at an organisational, jurisdictional and national level. The exercise scenario was based on an outbreak initially detected in Queensland.

The objectives of the exercise were to assess:

• national, jurisdictional and industry arrangements for implementing and managing a livestock standstill.
• national, jurisdictional and industry decision-making processes in declaring and implementing a national livestock standstill.
• mechanisms for communicating a national livestock standstill and their effectiveness.
• coordination within and between government and non-government agencies and industry, prior to and during a national livestock standstill.

Exercise Odysseus Report

Read the Final Report on Exercise Odysseus.

More information

• Foot-and-mouth disease
• ABARES report: Potential socio-economic impacts of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Australia

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