Jakarta, May 12 (IANS) The Indonesian government is investigating the entry of the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus that infected pigs at a farm on Bulan island in the Riau Islands province, the Agriculture Ministry has said.
A team has been deployed for disinfection and biosecurity assistance after Singapore temporarily halted exports of pigs from the island, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We have proposed an ASF-free sub-compartment system on Bulan island and has been approved by Singapore authority so that we can export pigs to the country again in the future,” said the head of the Agricultural Quarantine Agency, Bambang.
The Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health recently announced an outbreak of ASF which killed 35,297 pigs in a herd of 285,034 at a farm on Bulan island.
Bulan Island is the largest pig farm in the archipelagic country which regularly supplies around 15 percent of Singapore’s pork needs, according to Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry.
–IANS
int/sha
