The disease doesn't affect people or the food safety of pork meat but an outbreak of ASF in Australia would have devastating impacts on our pork industry, the country's economy and our rural communities.

The disease has now been confirmed in Timor-Leste, a country that's just over an hour away from Darwin by plane.

Since ASF was identified in China mid last year, over 25 tonnes of pork product have been confiscated at Australia's border, with around 15 per cent testing positive for the virus.

Australia is known for its strong and efficient quarantine and biosecurity system.

However, as we have seen with ASF, the risk is continuously changing and we need to make sure our systems evolve to minimize this risk, increase our ability to respond to potential incursions, and reduce the impact if an outbreak did occur.

That's a key area of our research at the Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation and we are examining ways to improve partnerships on the ground between all livestock industry stakeholders including producers and vets.

The goal is to find the best ways to support livestock producers to improve on-farm biosecurity and to enhance regular monitoring of animal health and reporting of unusual signs of disease.

The aim is to assist with early detection, and a rapid and effective response to the introduction and spread of any significant disease.

Biosecurity isn't just about the stringent quarantine measures at the border to prevent the introduction of unwanted diseases and pests.

We all have a role to play in protecting our farming industries, to prevent infection of our livestock and spread of this infection to wider livestock populations.

There's some great resources at beta.biosecurity.gov.au

Whether you're returning from overseas, shopping for overseas products online, keeping a few sheep on a small block or running a thousand head of cattle- biosecurity is your business.