Holiday Ayo - Malaysia has temporarily suspended imports of live cattle and buffalo from Australia. The decision was taken just a few days after Indonesia stopped importing live cattle from the kangaroo country after detecting lumpy skin disease (LSD) in a number of cattle that arrived.

In a statement, Australia's Chief Veterinarian Mark Schipp said there had never been any detection of the virus in his country to date. So, he accused that the LSD virus detected in cattle sent to Indonesia could have been infected during shipment.

"We understand (Malaysia's) decision was based on Indonesian advice that they would not accept cattle from four specific export companies following the detection of LSD in Australian cattle that were exported after they had arrived and spent time in Indonesia," Dr Schipp said in a statement.

Therefore, the Australian government has tried to convince Malaysia to consider its decision.

"I have made a statement to my Malaysian partner requesting that restrictions on imports of live cattle and buffalo from Australia be lifted immediately," Schipp said.

Malaysia is one of Australia's smaller livestock export markets than Indonesia with an average of only 20,000 head exported annually over the past five years.

The emergence of the LSD virus will certainly hurt Australia. This is because the Kangaroo Country has the potential to lose export revenues of around US$7 billion a year if many countries stop buying meat and milk for a while.

Previously, Indonesia decided to stop buying livestock from four live export facilities in Australia after it was found that 13 of the cattle sent had the LSD virus.