Indonesia: Swine fever outbreak kills 30,000 pigs, fear rises in Australia

The Indonesian agriculture ministry said on December 18 that nearly 30,000 pigs have died as the country tackles an outbreak of African swine fever. A deadly pig virus has been devastating farmers across the region in North Sumatra and is expected to wipe out at least more than half of China's pig herd this year. The recent spread of the disease has also raised concerns in Australia who are now reportedly enhancing their biosecurity measures to keep out the swine fever. 

Swine fever, even though remains harmless to humans, it can kill pigs within a few days. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health the fatality rate of the disease can be nearly up to 100 per cent. The virus is robust and is also able to survive for seven days even in the absence of a host and for several months in frozen pork products. Recently, the outbreak had the biggest effect in China, but it has spread across South East Asia while Vietnam and the Philippines have reportedly seen the worst outbreaks. 

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Biosecurity in Australia

The island country which is known for its strict biosecurity measures is now spending an additional $45 million on measures designed to keep the virus out of Australia. However, the recent security measures have underlining difficulty of the task. In the last six months, the Australian authorities have seized nearly 32 tonnes of pork products from the passenger bags and other mailed packages. The chief executive of Australian Pork Limited later reported that fragments of African swine fever in the 49 per cent of the seized products. 

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Australian Pork industry estimated that this disease's outbreak can have an impact of A$2 billion which is worth nearly A$5.3 billion and employs at least 36,000 people. Australia has stiffened quarantine efforts in Darwin which is also the main point of entry for flights from East Timor which also declared an outbreak recently. Even Germany stepped up the measures to prevent the disease after one case was discovered in a wild boar across the border in Poland. 

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