African Virus Allegedly Kills Over 4,000 pigs In Indonesia

Over 4,600 pigs Allegedly Die Of African Virus In Indonesia

By Bimbo Ogunnaike with agency report

North Sumatra’s Head of Food Security and Livestock Agency in Indonesia, Azhar Harahap, has disclosed that 4,600 pigs have allegedly died of the African swine fever in the country province of North Sumatra.

Harahap said on Thursday that the dead pigs were found in 11 regions in the province, including Medan City, Deli Serdang Regency, Toba Samosir Regency and South Tapanuli Regency.

“They belonged to local farmers, not pig farming companies in the region,”he told local media, adding that this phenomenon has been happening since October and the virus continues to spread because some farmers disposed of the infected pig carcasses into rivers.

Harahap stressed that farmers should have buried them instead since the virus is transmitted through the air.

The provincial administration is currently reaching local farmers particularly those in impacted areas.

It would be recalled that in an effort to prevent the virus from spreading, North Sumatra Governor, Edy Rahmayadi, has sent letters to all mayors and regents prohibiting all farmers to throw infected dead pigs into rivers.

Last year, North Sumatra ranked second after East Nusa Tenggara province in terms of number of pig population in Indonesia. The number reached around 1.2 million.

In 2017, the hog cholera virus killed around 10,000 pigs owned by local farmers of Flores islands in East Nusa Tenggara. The estimated loss to farmers was around 25 billion rupiahs (about 1,7 million U.S. dollars).