Epidemic prevention mats: How not to prevent a bird flu outbreak

It was pretty great to get back to Miyazaki airport, with the fresh fruit soft-serve ice cream stand right at the arrivals area and the palm trees swaying in the fresh air outside. These mats at the airport doors I don't recall seeing before, though. Could these damp mats really be effective — would killing a few germs on the soles of your shoes be enough to prevent an epidemic?
Miyazaki's farming industry has been hit hard by both avian flu and hoof-and-mouth disease, with cow and pig culls in 2010 and mass slaughtering of its famous chickens in 2011, so it's not surprising the prefecture would do whatever it could to prevent the spread of either disease. But it's hard to imagine these wet, threadbare carpets would help much.
(I'd love to hear about it if someone knows otherwise.)