A disease that has devastated the global porcine population, killing 800 million pigs, has spread to Australia's closest neighbour — Papua New Guinea.

Key points: The Australian pig industry is on high alert with African swine fever now in Papua New Guinea

The Australian pig industry is on high alert with African swine fever now in Papua New Guinea The disease does not affect humans nor pork meat but could wipe out the industry if it reaches Australia

The disease does not affect humans nor pork meat but could wipe out the industry if it reaches Australia An estimated 800 million pigs have died as a result of the disease worldwide

The outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) there, and the reported deaths of more than 300 pigs in the country's highlands, has the pork industry here worried.

Australian Pork Limited chief executive Margo Andrae said the industry was on high alert and working hard to keep the fever out.

"We started to hear rumours of pig numbers increasing in deaths in PNG and on Sunday we finally got confirmation that, yes, African swine fever is in PNG," she said.

"The reason why this is so scary is that it is still moving — it's getting closer to Australia.

"We saw it took six months to get to Timor and to have it now in PNG is just awful, so it's awful for PNG but it's just getting so much closer to Australia."

Margo Andrae says the industry is doing everything possible to keep African swine fever out of Australia. ( Supplied: Australian Pork Limited )

Ms Andrae stressed that ASF was an animal welfare issue and did not affect the meat nor humans.

"I have to be really clear — African swine fever does not transfer to humans," she said.

"If it gets into our Australian pig industry, it will decimate every animal and destroy the industry."

The head of the industry's peak body believed that with borders closed due to COVID-19, they had a better chance of keeping the disease out.

"But we're still asking Australians to make sure they don't have packages [containing pork products] come through the mail and just to be very vigilant," Ms Andrae said.

"Of course we've taken action on the feral pig population as well. We've put the national coordinator in place with the support of the Federal Government and they had their first roundtable on Monday.

"But in light of the current environment, the Australian pork industry has been on high alert for six months, with high biosecurity on farm and at the borders, so we're doing everything we can to keep it out."

Ms Andrae said this was the new normal.

"We'll do everything we can to protect our $5.3 billion industry," she said.

"We employ 35,000 people across this country and the last thing we need is to lose the pork industry in Australia, so we'll do everything we can to try and keep it out.

"We're getting great support from government and our industry is on high alert, so we'll just continue to put those good hygiene practices in place."

Three PNG provinces urged to slaughter pigs

More than 300 pigs have so far been killed by ASF in Mendi in the country's Southern Highlands province.

PNG Agriculture Minister John Simon said it was unclear how the outbreak had occurred, but it is suspected the pigs may have eaten contaminated meat at a village dump.

He said PNG has been on high alert for ASF for several months.

"While we were keeping an eye on the trade routes, all of a sudden it happened up at Mendi," he said.

"It's shocking to us, how did it end up in Mendi?"

The outbreak was discovered while PNG is in a 14-day state of emergency due to COVID-19, restricting domestic travel.

The Minister said his officers had received permission to travel to the area to try to contain the outbreak, but he raised concerns it may be difficult to secure Government funding during the coronavirus crisis.

Three provinces in the country's highlands region — Enga, Hela, and Southern Highlands — have been declared diseased areas, and the movement of pig and pig products out of those areas have been banned.

"We are encouraging those in those three provinces to start slaughtering their pigs," Mr Simon said.

Pigs are a central part of PNG's culture and are regularly traded to seal marriages or end disputes.

There are serious concerns that mass pig deaths could cause social and economic upheaval in the country.

'We can fight it until the end'

For Australian free-range pork producer, Jack Hewitt, the threat of ASF moving closer to Australian shores is a real one, but he said he and many other producers have been on high alert for some time.

"It is a major concern that it is close to home," Mr Hewitt said.

"Having said that, you can go from one point to another point anywhere in the world within 24 hours so it doesn't really make it a greater threat being close.

Free-range pork producer Jack Hewitt says the industry has strong biosecurity measures already in place. ( ABC Rural: Lara Webster )

"It just means that we've got to maintain our vigilance and ensure that our animals are healthy and we keep it out of Australia.

"It's probably the best time in living history to keep on top of it … the world is on high alert for any kind of virus at present and the next six months at least, I'd imagine, we'll be very conscious of anything moving in or out of any country around the world."

Numerous biosecurity measures are already in place on Mr Hewitt's farm near Gunnedah in north-west New South Wales and he said biosecurity nationwide was something the industry should be proud of.

"The pork producers are far fewer than they were before, even 10 years ago, so the ones who are left, especially after the past few years in a very tough financial climate, are very dedicated and they are highly conscious of their biosecurity and animal health," Mr Hewitt said.

"We're right onto it. We're very conscious of it.

"We're confident that we could hold it at bay. We're rather isolated at our place, I think we'd be right, we can fight it until the end."

Biosecurity more important than ever

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said with the spread of ASF around the world, Australia's biosecurity was more important than ever, and the Government's $66.6 million ASF response package was continuing to be rolled out.

"Australia already has strict measures in place to prevent ASF from hitting our shores, however it is important that we regularly assess and improve the measures we have in place," Mr Littleproud said.

"In late 2019 we increased intervention for high-risk international flights to enable an additional 500,000 travellers to be screened by the end of 2020.

"By July we will have six new detector dogs working to protect our borders. We are also bringing in an additional 130 extra frontline biosecurity officers.

More than 80 percent of pigs infected with African swine fever die. ( Supplied: The Pirbright Institute )

"The ASF response package will also install two new 3D x-ray machines at the Sydney and Melbourne mail centres.

"This is a world-first biosecurity innovation that allows us to automatically detect risk items.

"We offer our assistance to PNG as they work to contain this disease.

"Biosecurity measures in place in the Torres Strait have been ramped up as a result of COVID-19 and are being re-assessed to ensure they effectively manage the risk that ASF in PNG poses to Australia."