Commercial pig farms have to step up their biosecurity measures to prevent the African swine fever disease from occurring in Sarawak, said Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas.

Uggah, who is also state minister for the modernisation of agriculture, said travellers who returned from abroad were reminded to not bring back pork and pork products from countries affected by ASF.

He said his ministry had also advised local farmers not to feed their pigs with leftovers from restaurants or kitchens, as the ASF virus from contaminated pork products could survive the cooking process and was highly resistant to the environment.

“ASF is a disease of great economic threat to the state, and every attempt must be made to keep the disease away from Sarawak,” he said in a statement today.

ASF is a highly virulent and contagious disease of pigs. 

Following China’s notification to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) on Aug 3, 2018, of a confirmed case of ASF in a domestic pig farm in Liaoning, the whole Asian region is now at risk.

Meanwhile, the Sarawak Department of Veterinary Services issued two circulars to importers of meat and meat products on the import ban on pork and pork products from countries affected by ASF, on Dec 26, 2018, and on Jan 2 this year.

The disease has since spread to Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, while the governments of Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Australia and Malaysia are also worried.

The virus, however, is not harmful to humans and experts feel that the risk of the virus mutating to become infectious to humans is low.

- Bernama