A group of Australia’s most experienced veterinarians are warning climate change is leading to new pest distribution and is likely to spark new, potentially deadly diseases, threatening Australia’s agricultural sector and biosecurity. In an open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison they point out that if the Federal Government doesn’t take serious climate action now, shifting climate zones and habitat destruction increase the risk of emerging diseases. This includes an increased risk of diseases like the current coronavirus pandemic, which jump from animals to humans.

Organised by Veterinarians for Climate Action, the CVO's worked to achieve more than 120 media appearances.

The open letter is here.

Media appearances were as follows:

• Win News in Cairns, Townsville and Central Queensland
• An exclusive in The Weekly Times, (also here). This also saw the letter letter printed in full as an op-ed
• The Australian Financial Review (also here)
• The ABC Queensland Country Hour(starts at 39:30) (also here)
• The ABC Tasmanian Country Hour (starts at 08:30 (also here)
• The ABC NSW Rural Report
• ABC Hobart Breakfast Show
• Op-ed run across 117 regional and rural newspapers (also here) including in key target regions such as the Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald, Warrnambool Standard, Central Western Daily (Orange), Bendigo Advertiser, the Daily Liberal (Dubbo) and more.

The CVO's letter was also shared on the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA)'s Queensland monthly newsletter, and in November appeared in the ProVet Partners in Practice newsletter (link).