Dr Kirsty Richards
Dr Kirsty Richards is a highly experienced veterinarian with over 20 years in the field. Throughout her career she has demonstrated exceptional leadership and unwavering commitment to advance biosecurity standards across the industry.
As the Industry and Government Liaison Manager at SunPork Group, Australia’s largest pig farming integrator, she provides essential professional services to farms responsible for 20% of Australia’s pork production.
At SunPork, Dr Richards plays a key role in maintaining and enhancing national biosecurity standards. She has been pivotal in their word-class antimicrobial benchmarking program, which has led to a significant reduction in antimicrobial usage. Her commitment and leadership is also reflected in her management of SunPork’s world-leading initiative Autism and Agriculture program that employs and trains autistic adults in farming roles.
Her influence on biosecurity policy and change advocacy extends across the entire pork industry and Australia’s biosecurity system. She plays a key role in helping the pork industry prepare for and manage biosecurity risks in Australia and advises on health and biosecurity matters in pig production.
As a foundation member of the Australian Pork Limited Emergency Animal Disease Technical Panel, she plays a pivotal role in strengthening partnerships between industry and government to proactively manage biosecurity risks. She was heavily involved in the development of the pig industry’s Voluntary Enhanced Biosecurity Standards (VEBS) that aim to raise on-farm biosecurity practices and provide governments with assurance of a farm’s disease risk status during an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak. She led industry benchmarking for VEBS compliance and developed verification best practices as a Pork SA representative in collaboration with the Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia. Her extensive technical knowledge and collaborative approach enable effective engagement between industry and government.
Dr Richards is a leader in operational and strategic post-border preparedness for the pork industry and has a history of initiating, building and sustaining jurisdictional partnerships. She plays an integral role in document reviews of the Australian Veterinary Emergency Plan (AUSVETPLAN) through her participation in relevant working groups that examine ASF, classical swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease strategies. She has initiated, led and supported research projects to improve biosecurity and welfare outcomes during an emergency animal disease outbreak. This includes the development of alternative methods for humane animal destruction and disposal, as well as improving surveillance programs for emerging risks.
An active supporter of the pork industry, Dr Richards has contributed to actual outbreak responses and preparedness exercises. She served as a Liaison – Livestock Industry representative during the 2022 Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) response. She represented the pork industry on the National Vector Management Group, was instrumental in incorporating integrated mosquito controls into the Australian Pork Industry Quality Assurance Program and provided accurate messaging to industry. She worked with owners of infected properties, helping collect samples for surveillance and provided guidance on disease management.
Dr Richards also contributes to international research efforts by working with local and international researchers, including the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis, Swine Health Information Center and Ausvet to understand how JEV could spread in North America.
Her expertise and leadership have made a significant impact on animal health and industry collaboration. Dr Richards firmly believes that trusted, technically competent, operationally sound industry expertise is pivotal to biosecurity preparedness and response, and that working together delivers the best outcomes for all.
Watch a video about their work
Introduction
This is the accessible text transcript of the 2025 Australian Biosecurity Awards winner video featuring Dr Kirsty Richards.
Transcript
My name is Kirsty Richards, and it’s an absolute honour and a privilege to be recognised as a 2025 Australian Biosecurity Award winner.
What makes this award even more special is the recognition it provides, by extension, to the Australian pork industry and to the many government stakeholders the industry collaborates with.
My role over the past five years has been to really prioritise the partnership between our industry and government, to educate stakeholders about the pork supply chain, to recognise the tremendous value that comes from collaboration, and to reinforce that bringing together the skills, perspectives, and knowledge of different stakeholders in a meaningful way strengthens our collective outputs.
During this time, our industry has shifted its biosecurity focus from being predominantly farm-based to a supply chain approach that includes not only farms but also genetics, feed, livestock transport and processing.
Industry’s biosecurity preparedness really is only as good as its weakest link.
I’ve been fortunate to assist the development of the Voluntary Enhanced Biosecurity Standards for African swine fever and the African swine fever response operational guidelines for pig abattoirs.
Both of these have been endorsed by Animal Health Committee and incorporated into AUSVETPLAN policy documentation.
And whilst my work was initially heavily focused on African swine fever, in 2022 we saw the value of our efforts translate into a highly collaborative response to the outbreak of Japanese encephalitis virus in humans and pigs across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
As we said at the time, it was the wrong disease, but absolutely the right preparation.
Through my endeavours, I’ve been very fortunate to have the support of not only the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Australian Pork Limited, but also my employer, SunPork.
In receiving this award, I’m also very grateful to my incredible mentors, Dr Ron Glanville, himself a recipient of the Dr David Banks Biosecurity Lifetime Achievement Award, Dr Ross Cutler OAM, and Dr Andy Pointon.
It absolutely has taken a village and your belief, support and encouragement has kept me going.
It really is a great honour to be involved in Australian agriculture and biosecurity.
The opportunities I’ve been provided to contribute to state, national, international and cross-commodity matters spanning policy, diagnostics, pathophysiology, epidemiology, work health and safety, production economics, agricultural chemicals and One Health have been a great privilege.
I consider myself very lucky to undertake the work I do.
I’m very grateful to those I work with across both industry and government, and I’m sincerely appreciative of the recognition afforded by this award.
Thank you.
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