The head of the state’s peak industry body for red meat and wool producers told InDaily on Thursday the detection of viral fragments of the disease at Adelaide Airport in recent days was a “concern”, but also “a reminder that the systems we have in place do work”.

Foot and mouth disease is not transmittable to humans, but affects all cloven-hoofed animals including cattle, sheep and pigs.

Tobin said at this stage he was not prepared to back a call from politicians including federal member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie to temporarily close the border with Indonesia, saying there were interim steps before it comes to that if the situation “evolves”.

“I’d rather see before that level, I’d rather see 100 per cent screening of every single passenger who arrives from a high-risk area — at the moment Australia will target certain flights, but won’t do that for every flight,” he said.

In a statement provided to InDaily on Thursday Sharkie said “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.”

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 could not be transmitted.

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

Tobin said Livestock SA is helping farmers review their on-farm biosecurity practices and making sure they keep their “farm border” safe.

“We’ve had members ask us for biosecurity signage, so people are obviously checking what they’ve got in place,” he said.

Tobin urged South Australians who travel to high-risk areas such as Indonesia to take care not to come into contact with animals, and be vigilant in cleaning clothes and shoes before their return.

For travellers who have returned from high-risk areas such as Indonesia, he asked that they avoid non-essential travel to farms for 14 days.

“We can call it a team South Australia thing — keeping this out will require defence in depth, layers of depth,” he said.

Tobin warned a local outbreak would jeopardise the state’s lucrative cattle export industry.

“It would create market access issues, and two-thirds of everything we produce is for export — and SA livestock production equates to over a quarter of total agriculture production in the state,” he said.

The consequences would also be ”distressing” for farmers, citing the piles of cattle corpses burned during the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in the UK in 2001, Tobin said.

“Think of producers who have worked on herd or flock lines for generations, they have to destroy the whole herd — it’s quite harrowing,” he said.

CEO of Livestock SA Travis Tobin. Photo: supplied

In an interview with ABC Radio Adelaide 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.

Rhodes said there was no need at this stage for significant additional measures at places like sale yards and added that sanitation mats would be deployed at Adelaide Airport.

“I understand they will be porous-type mats placed on the 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.

The federal government has forewarned that an immediate three-day standstill on livestock movements would be implemented if the disease were to reach Australia.

Opposition MPs Barnaby Joyce and Karen Andrews also called on the federal 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