Determination of the acceptable risk of introduction of FMD virus in passenger luggage

Within weeks of the February 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK, a number of measures were introduced at the border to reduce the risk of introduction of the disease into New Zealand. This paper examines the process that led to these decisions, and compares it to the decision-making process implied under the WTO framework. In particular, difficulties in determining the acceptable level of risk for low probability/high impact diseases are discussed.