People were “losing their minds” about thongs in Bali, but this was a medium-impact, low-probability risk, according to Hutchinson.

“The big issue for us is infected food products entering Australia, which in turn have to enter the livestock food supply chain, and be consumed by animals in order for that to then start.”

Australia, along with New Zealand, has “some of the tightest biosecurity systems in the world,” Hutchinson said, adding that security measures, including the deployment of sniffer dogs, stricter inspection of luggage from border security of people and targeted, random searches, should be ramped up.

However, there is no reason to suggest that flights between Indonesia and Australia need to be stopped, Hutchinson added, pointing out that Indonesia is one of Australia’s most important trade partners.

“Does the risk profile warrant that type of action? At this stage as we have been informed, it does not.”

The comments come after Agriculture Minister Murray Watt revealed on Wednesday that viral fragments of foot and mouth disease had been detected in a beef product at an Australian airport, brought by a passenger from Indonesia, and in pork products sold in a Melbourne CBD retailer as part of routine inspections.

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Minister Watt has called for the travelling public “do the right thing”.

“The risk of it coming to Australia is extremely low, but it is not zero,” he said on Thursday morning.

“What we are asking people to do is if they have been in Bali, especially [around] livestock ... if you are coming back in, clean your shoes. And if you don’t need to bring them back, leave them behind.”

The federal government will be rolling out sanitation foot mats in coming days.

Minister Watt also warned travellers they would face hefty fines if they were caught bringing in food products that might threaten Australia’s biosecurity.

“Just the other day, we saw a young woman be fined about $2500 for bringing back a half-eaten subway sandwich into the country. That’s a pretty stiff fine. It’s probably a lot more than the person paid for their airfares.”

“We will throw the book at people if they do the wrong thing.”

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