A spokesperson for Agriculture Minister Murray Watt confirmed to InDaily on Thursday that viral fragments of the livestock disease were detected in Adelaide, but emphasised that it was not live virus and cannot be transmitted.

The spokesperson advised that a passenger at Adelaide Airport was intercepted with a beef product, and when prompted by a biosecurity officer, the passenger declared a number of items and was issued with a warning.

The seized beef item tested positive for foot and mouth disease viral fragments.

It comes a day after Watt said that viral fragments had been detected in pork products in Melbourne.

Watt said an immediate three-day standstill on livestock movements would be implemented if the disease were to reach Australia.

But Watt felt “very confident that Australia’s world-leading biosecurity system stands us in very good stead to resist this outbreak arriving”.

Foot and mouth disease is not transmittable to humans, but affects all cloven-hoofed animals including cattle, sheep and pigs and represents a significant threat to Australia’s livestock industry.

Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie called for a temporary border closure for Indonesia, which is battling an outbreak in the popular tourist island of Bali.

“We need to protect our vital livestock industries from this $80 billion threat,” Sharkie said in a statement provided to InDaily.

“I support the temporary closure of Australia’s border with Indonesia until the outbreak has been brought under control, and the risks have been mitigated.”

In an interview with the ABC on Thursday Nathan Rhodes, a biosecurity official with South Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions, cautioned against overreacting to the detection of non-transmissible viral fragments.

“Even these detections that have happened at the border don’t constitute an outbreak… they just constitute useful surveillance information to note, “he said.

Rhodes said there is no need for significant additional measures at places like saleyards, and added that sanitation mats will be deployed at Adelaide Airport.

“I understand they will be porous-type mats placed on ground where passengers are disembarking as they come in through to the arrivals area, they are a damp mat filled with a citrus acid solution to clean the soles of the shoe,” he said.

Opposition MPs Barnaby Joyce and Karen Andrews also called on the government to consider shutting the border to one of the nation’s biggest trading partners.

“Let’s not run the risk of foot and mouth disease coming into Australia,” Andrews said on Thursday.

Joyce also urged the Australian government to send agriculture students to Bali to carry out a mass vaccination campaign or buy its 2000-head cattle herd with public money and destroy them.

-with AAP