African Swine Fever Kills Over 500 Pigs in East Nusa Tenggara
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27 February 2020 12:26 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - There are at least 574 pigs in the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) region that died due to contracting the African swine fever which spread to the region from the borders of its neighbor Timor Leste.
“574 pigs died because of the African virus. We have done our utmost supervision [to prevent this] but this is as the virus goes,” said NTT’s head of animal husbandry Dani Suhadi to Tempo on Thursday, February 27.
The local administration was informed about the outbreak after sending a dead sample to a government-appointed hospital in Medan, North Sumatra which confirms people’s fear that the pigs are indeed dead after contracting the virus.
Meanwhile, similar cases marring over its neighboring regions of Kupang and South Central Timor (TTS) have yet been confirmed as lab results have not been issued. He says that the African swine fever is considered a vicious virus as it can easily spread among pigs through contacts with simple daily objects.
“This virus is not a zoonosis, meaning it doesn’t spread to humans,” Dani Suhadi asserts in response to the rising fear among local residents that the virus would find its way to contract humans.
JOHN SEO KUPANG
