Australian experts warn of swine fever outbreak in pig population

Australian experts are warning that an outbreak swine fever could easily and rapidly spread across Australia.

 

The researchers at the University of Western Australia Institute of Agriculture (UWA) said swine fever could easily spread to Australia's domesticated pigs by way of the feral pig population.

 

Australia has as many as 20 million feral pigs and a classical swine fever outbreak, starting in north Queensland, could spread widely across Australia, potentially posing a risk to Australia's domestic pig population.

 

The team at UWA, led by Professor George Milne of the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, developed a computer model which simulated the effect of wild pigs moving across the landscape and according to the model, given the right seasonal conditions, swine fever could spread among feral pigs and become endemic and virtually impossible to eradicate in Australia.

 

Milne said the time of the outbreak and seasonal factors are absolutely critical to how quickly the disease could spread and the greatest danger of a rapidly spreading epidemic is at the start of the dry season, when feral pigs gather around water sources.

 

Research and Innovation at Australian Pork Limited general manager Darryl D'Souza believes that swine fever could have a devastating impact on the pig industry through increasing mortality and morbidity and reducing reproductive performance.

 

D'Souza said swine fever was last reported in Australia in 1961 and it is vital that any outbreak in feral pigs is controlled quickly, as it poses a serious threat to Australia's two-and-a-half million domestic pigs and an industry annually contributing almost A$1 billion to the Australian economy.