KUCHING: Measures to control the movement of wild pigs from Sabah to Sarawak need to be looked into, as this is one of the main means in which African Swine Fever (ASF) spreads.
Sarawak Livestock Breeders Association secretary Dr Ng Siew Thiam noted that the government has put in place measures to prevent people from bringing in the disease, but pointed out that wild pigs living in the jungles could also spread the virus.
“In our jungles, the pigs are roaming about and they can cross over to anywhere they like. This would be very bad — they can cross over from Sabah and Brunei to Limbang.
“Making Limbang an ASF disease control area is one of the measures, but they need to look at the movement of wild pigs. That is the main means of spread of ASF in this type of situation — from Sabah to here, it will most likely be from the movement of wild pigs in the jungle,” he said.
He said controlling the movement of wild pigs or clearing much of their population would be most effective but noted that this would be a difficult challenge.
He said in European countries, a corridor or barrier was created to prevent wild pigs from moving around as this was the best way to control the spread of ASF.
“We can control the movement of wild pigs by creating a fence or physical barrier, or eliminate the wild pigs so that they do not spread the disease — this is something the Department of Veterinary Services Sarawak (DVSS) or the wildlife department have to really look into,” he said.
Dr Ng said creating a physical barrier between Sabah and Sarawak to curb the movement of wild pigs would help to prevent them from entering areas with domestic pig farms here.
He advised that farmers, especially those close to the Sabah-Sarawak border, should prevent the encroachment of wild pigs into their farm area by creating a 10km buffer zone around their farms.
“Creating a 10km buffer zone around the farm would be ideal to prevent the spread of the ASF virus from wild pigs into the domestic pigs. The farmer would have to get rid of all the wild pigs within this 10km radius so that they do not get too close to their farms,” he said.
Earlier on Friday (Feb 26), Limbang was declared an ASF disease control area due to its close proximity to Sabah, where an ASF case had been reported.
DVSS director Dr Adrian Susin Ambud said the declaration was made under Section 35 (1) (b) of The Veterinary Public Health Ordinance 1999.
