{"id":250452,"date":"2019-12-18T09:52:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T23:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=250452"},"modified":"2020-07-31T15:36:14","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T05:36:14","slug":"pig-disease-hits-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/12\/18\/pig-disease-hits-indonesia\/","title":{"rendered":"Pig Disease Hits Indonesia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Agriculture Minister Senator Bridget McKenzie<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nDecember 18, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indonesia has confirmed it has detected African Swine Fever in North Sumatra, and is investigating pig deaths in some other provinces.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie said the news was concerning, especially as Indonesia \u2014 and particularly Bali \u2014 were so popular with Australian tourists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are about 188 flights a week from Indonesia direct into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns, Perth, Adelaide and Darwin,\u201d Minister McKenzie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBali is a favourite holiday destination for Australians and it\u2019s also a region with a lot of pigs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy department has already raised the risk status of flights from Indonesia and is increasing screening, interventions and scrutiny of travellers in line with the procedures we use to manage flights arriving from other ASF-affected countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d appeal to anyone travelling between Australia and Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia to be extra diligent about declaring what they\u2019re bringing back in, and to clean shoes and any other outdoor equipment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis virus is exceptionally hardy and can live in frozen meat for up to two years and in things like blood for six years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be spread by people going into an affected area and taking the virus out on their shoes, or through pigs eating scraps that contain affected product.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a zero tolerance approach to people who lie about what they have in their luggage and we\u2019ve refused entry to Australia for six people caught with biosecurity risk material.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf returning Australians do the same, they could face criminal prosecution or civil court action, and be ordered to pay up to $420,000 and be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is how seriously we\u2019re taking this threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn less than a year we\u2019ve seized 32 tonnes of pork from air travellers and recent testing showed that about 50 per cent of seized product contained African Swine Fever.\u201d<\/p>\n

African Swine Fever kills up to 80 per cent of pigs infected, but is not dangerous to human health.<\/p>\n

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