DPI runs simulation for African swine fever | Photos

Chief veterinary officer Sarah Britton said African swine fever had spread to Asia, including Timor, possibly Papua New Guinea and Sumatra in Indonesia and regular border and state monitoring was under way to ensure it did not make it to Australian shores.

The disease, unlike swine flu, only affects animals and does not present a risk to humans if they eat affected pork products, but it is contagious, stays in the environment for long periods of time and causes high mortality in pigs.

"It's just right on our doorstep - if we get it in Australia, it's massive impacts on on our pork industry and it will shut down pork exports," Cr Britton said.

"It's interesting in NSW, we actually have a very diverse pork industry - we have the biggest producer in Australia right down to some of the smallest so the challenge for us is that we have a lot of small producers in being able to reach those people and being able to make sure they've got good biosecurity."

Dr Britton said there were three scenarios where the disease was most likely to appear: infection of feral pigs in the northern parts of Australia, feeding infected meat to pigs and infection from a person who had contact with the virus.

She said larger piggeries would detect it quickly, but a virus in feral populations or in smaller operations might not be detected for weeks.

"All we can do it try to reduce that risk, looking at how we can improve our systems so we're quicker to respond and use expertise globally," she said.

Dr Britton said the DPI's laboratories were also helping NSW Health to monitor the coronavirus outbreak in China, particularly given the virus had an animal source.

"Over 70 per cent of diseases come from an animal part," she said.

"The thing about keeping wildlife and animals in situations where there's the potential overflow to humans is something that we need to consider.

"As we continue to grow and our urbanisation the likelihood of these events just increases."

Biosecurity programs director Amanda Cleary said the three-day Operation Waratah was a joint project with the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

"We're working with the UK [because] they use a rapid risk assessment and they're teaching us how to use that procedure so when we are in an event, we can look at a situation and say whether we would allow movement from farms and abattoirs, things like that," she said.

She said results from the exercise were shared with the UK overnight, receiving advice in return to inform the next day of activities, and the approach was adaptable to any plant or animal-based disease.