The beef industry is calling for meat processors to provide date on the hydatid status animals killed at their plants.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
It comes as around 33 per cent of beasts slaughtered have been found to contain the disease.
A key concern for graziers is the infected livestock show no symptoms of the disease which affects the liver or lungs until it is slaughtered.
The disease can be transmitted when the cysts are eaten by a wild or domestic dog or a fox, then they become infected with tapeworms and after six weeks eggs are passed with faeces onto pasture and can lay dormant for at least one year, are then eaten by grazing livestock and hatch in their intestine causing hydatid infection.
Cracow Station director and South-East Queensland Regional Beef Research Committee chair Richard Cox said the role of the North Australia Beef Research Council's role was to ensure clear communication on such issues to all parts of the industry.
"My job as chair is to be a better conduit between producers and researchers," he said.
"Hydatid has been raised recently as there are concerns around the amount of the disease being spread.
"We understand at least one leading meatworks is reporting back to producers on their kill health to let them know if hydatid was found to be present in the carcuses."
Mr Cox said the NABRC has entered into preliminary discussion with specialist livestock vets about the issue.
"We understand 33 per cent of Australian cattle slaughtered in an eight year period showed the disease in cattle livers," he said.
"But there are no symptoms or treatment once cattle are infected.
"Hydatid is transferred from dogs to cattle, including domestic pets so it's important to keep your dogs wormed."
University of Queensland Industry fellow at the School of Veterinary Science Dr Tamsin Barnes said hydatid has been present in Australia ever since sheep were first brought here.
More formally the condition is known as Cystic echinococcosis caused by the zoonotic tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus.
Dr Tamsin has co-authored several reports on hydatid in cattle and said they could infect three intermediate hosts groups - livestock, native animals especially macropods (kangaroos and wallabies) and humans.
"There's a lot of concern about hydatid at the moment," Dr Barnes said.
"Hydatid is interesting and complicated as its life-cycle has two stages, the adult tapeworm which is tiny, about 10mm long can be present in populations of hundreds of thousands in dogs, dingos wild dogs and foxes.
"While hydatid does not cause problems in dogs, if one of the infected canines defecates in a pasture or yard it expels the disease which can then be transferred to an intermediate host such as grazing livestock which can then develop cysts in their liver or lungs."
Dr Barnes said anyone working with livestock need to ensure all their working and companion dogs were properly wormed.
"In humans get infected by hydatid it can a long time to develop and can cause serious abdominal chest and lung problems - and it can be extremely difficult to diagnose and treat," she said.
"If a human host is infected by these cysts in the liver and lungs, it's a major health problem."
Dr Barnes recommend all graziers should have a strict management plan for disposing of offal and dead animals.
"We advise landholders not to dispose any offal from dead animals onto paddocks as your dogs can get infected or wild animals can come along and perpetuate the cycle," she said.
"And when roo shooters go out if they kill something, then don't leave the guts, liver and lungs on the paddock or in the bush for animals to eat afterwards."
Dr Banes said she and her colleagues were surprised when they studied 1.5 million cattle across all Australian states and territories except Western Australia about how high the prevalence of hydatid was, especially close to major population centres. .
"We were gobsmacked about the high proportion of cattle with hydatid very close to Brisbane and urban areas which ranged from 33 to 70pc," she said.
"We would like to see all meat processors collect data regarding livestock slaughter health distributed to producers in order for them make informed decision and help the diseases more generally.
"And if this was all done consistently by all processors at the industry level then researchers would be complete the data from sources to make broader inferences."