As African Swine Fever gets closer to Australian shores, pig farmers are being brought up to speed on how to prevent it coming onto their property.

The disease has wiped out millions of pigs in China, and earlier this month was confirmed to have spread to East Timor.

Pork Australia Chief Executive Margo Andrae told Macquarie’s National Rural News if the disease makes its way here it could spell the end of the industry.

“We just continue to find more and more products coming in illegally that shouldn’t be, and we need people to actually take this seriously,” Ms Andrae said.

“If this virus gets in, it does actually wipe out the domestic pig industry, and if it gets into the feral pig population, it will be incredibly hard to contain.”

A forum is being held in the New South Wales town of Young today, to help farmers learn how to protect their pigs from the deadly disease.

Ms Andrae says about 100 producers will be attending.

“It’s really about that grass roots connection back into our industry, of how we continue to protect our farms, and our piggeries.”

Subscribe to the National Rural News podcast: http://bit.ly/RuralNewsPodcast