KUCHING: Sarawakians have been warned of the African swine fever (ASF), a severe viral disease of pigs.
Following China’s notification to the World Organisation for Animal Health on Aug 3, 2018 of a confirmed case of ASF at a farm in Liaoning Province, the whoIe Asian region is now at risk.
The disease has since spread to Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. The governments of Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Australia and Malaysia are also worried.
In Europe, ASF is mainIy detected in the wild pig populations of Eastern European countries, in Belgium in Sept 2018, and has spread to Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Sardinia, Italy.
Countries like Germany and Spain are fencing their borders to prevent wild boars from coming in contact with domestic pig herds.
Deputy Chief Minister and Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said the virus, if unchecked, would lead to serious economic losses to pig farmers in the state and would have a serious impact on food security.
“The virus is not harmful to humans and experts feel that the risk of the virus mutating to become infectious to humans is low,” he said in a press statement read by Sarawak Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) director Dr Adrian Susin here yesterday.
Uggah also mentioned that Sarawak DVS had issued two circulars to the importers of meat and meat products on the ban on the import of pork and pork products from countries affected by the fever – one on Dec 26, 2018 and another on Jan 2 this year.
The DVS will continue to conduct checks in airports, seaports and in shops to make sure that pork and pork products brought in illegally are not sold to the public.
“My ministry and the DVS have informed the commercial pig farms to step up their biosecurity measures. We have also advised our pig farmers not to feed their pigs with leftovers from the restaurants or kitchens as the ASF virus from contaminated pork products can survive the cooking process and is highly resistant in the environment.
“Currently there is no treatment or vaccine available to control the disease and any infected farm will be quarantined and all the pigs inside the farm will be depopulated and disposed of by onsite farm burial,” he said.
“I wish to seek the cooperation of all stakeholders, especially our local pig farmers, to step up their farm biosecurity and for travellers coming back from abroad not to bring back pork and pork products from countries affected,” Uggah added.
Any further enquiry can be directed to the Department of Veterinary Services Sarawak.
