Foot-and-mouth disease 'would devastate south-west agricultural industry'

"I can't think of anything more devastating outside of a terrorist attack," Mr Tehan said.

"It would devastate our local communities."

Mr Tehan said the federal government should consider closing the border with Indonesia if that would stop the disease from spreading to Australia.

Viral fragments of foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever were detected in pork products at a Melbourne retailer on Wednesday.

Australia remains free of the diseases as the live virus was not detected, but Agriculture Minister Murray Watt reiterated the importance of biosecurity measures.

Farmer Power chief executive officer Garry Kerr said farmers were concerned the federal government wasn't doing enough to stop the spread of the disease.

"It's extremely concerning," Mr Kerr said.

"The government is not acting fast enough and hard enough to protect the livestock industry."

Mr Kerr said the disease would have a devastating impact on Australia's economy.

"The general public needs to realise that if it hits it will affect everything on the supermarket shelves," he said.

"Exports will be impacted because they won't be accepted by other countries and the cost of everything on your supermarket shelves will increase."

Mr Kerr said if the federal government didn't want to close the border with Indonesia, it needed to ensure people returning from the country followed strict measures to ensure they did not spread the disease.

"When people get back here they need to be educated about what they need to do to ensure they don't bring it in and if they don't comply there should be hefty fines in place," he said.

Mr Kerr said foot-and-mouth-disease had the potential to decimate the country's agricultural industry.

"People think COVID is bad and it is - it's having a huge impact on everything - foot-and-mouth-disease would be the equivalent for the livestock industry," he said.

Moyne Shire mayor Ian Smith, who has a farm at Pura Pura, said there was no bigger threat to agriculture.

"I'm greatly concerned about foot-and-mouth," Cr Smith said.

"I've had this fear for years. I remember seeing footage in the UK of how it devastated herds and flocks there."

Cr Smith said he was concerned about wild animals getting infected and then passing it on to livestock.

"Our stock are grazing animals and I'm concerned about how we would manage it in the feral population," he said. "Every section of the community will be affected."

The products found on Wednesday, believed to be imported from China, were detected in the Melbourne CBD as part of routine surveillance and have been seized.

It's the first time viral fragments have been detected in a retail setting, Senator Watt said.

"This is not the first time in Australian history that we have picked up foot and mouth disease viral fragments in meat products - it's happened a number of other times in airport settings," he told reporters in Brisbane.

"I want to assure people that our systems have worked, we have monitored this, we have undertaken surveillance operations and these products have been found, tested and now seized."

Further investigations about how the products entered Australia was being taken and it was likely prosecutions would occur, Senator Watt said.

"If you do the wrong thing, you will be caught. If you try to bring products into the country without declaring them you will be caught," he said.

A state government spokeswoman said while the recent detection did not pose a threat to human or animal health, it was working closely with the federal government to ensure communities are protected from foot and mouth disease.

"We support the biosecurity work being undertaken by the Commonwealth, including the testing of imported products at retail outlets and enhanced measures at the border. In Victoria we have a number of activities underway which include preparedness exercises under the emergency management arrangements, scenario planning and staff carrying out surveillance and testing of suspect cases on the ground," she said.

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