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Deadly Pig Virus Wiping Out Asian Herds Reaches Indonesia

Deadly Pig Virus Wiping Out Asian Herds Reaches Indonesia

(Bloomberg) -- The deadly African swine fever sweeping across Asia has spread to Indonesia, reaching a region with more than a million pigs.

Almost 400 backyard farms in Sumatera Utara -- a province home to 1.2 million hogs -- have been struck by the virus since September, leading to 28,000 pig deaths, the Rome-based World Organization for Animal Health said on Tuesday. While the source of the infection isn’t known, it’s suspected to have spread during the transportation of live animals and may be from contaminated feed or animal handlers.

The finding in Asia’s ninth-largest pork producer follows significant outbreaks across the continent, highlighting how difficult it has become to contain the fatal disease. A United Nations gauge of global meat prices has surged this year and rising food costs in some of the biggest emerging markets are posing a possible inflation threat.

Indonesia is isolating infected areas from hog trade and the distribution of meat to other regions, said Fadjar Sumping Tjatur Rassa, director of animal health at the agriculture ministry. The country isn’t mandating farmers to cull hogs.

Indonesian authorities had said they were investigating a possible outbreak last month after finding almost 5,000 dead pigs. Neighboring Malaysia has already banned pork products from Indonesia as a precaution against the virus, the Star reported this week.

To contact the reporters on this story: Megan Durisin in London at mdurisin1@bloomberg.net;Eko Listiyorini in Jakarta at elistiyorini@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Nicholas Larkin

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.