KUCHING, Aug 17: A total of 210kg of pork-based products have been confiscated upon arrival at airports in Sarawak up until May 2022, while two consignments of imported pork products such as stew pork in cans have been rejected as of August 2022 after they were found to have been contaminated with African Swine Fever (ASF).
Minister of Agriculture Modernisation and Regional Development Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom also informed that as of August this year, four compounds have been issued for offences under Section 60 of the Veterinary Public Health Ordinance 1999 involving the slaughtering of pigs in unlicensed slaughterhouses.
“The ban on import of pork and pork-based products from ASF-infected areas has been enforced and implemented under Section 9 (1) of the Ordinance.
“However smuggling activities and non-compliance with this ban still occur,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Rundi was responding to Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen who had urged the Sarawak government to be truthful and open to the public on the status of the ASF disease control measures in Sarawak.
In order to curb the spread of ASF from one division to another, he explained that livestock movement control as per Section 36 of the Ordinance was introduced, where test and slaughter procedures were implemented in which only registered pig farms with permits were allowed to deliver pigs to their respective abattoirs or Divisional District Councils to be tested and marked before being slaughtered for sale.
“Continuous monitoring of slaughtering activities in unregistered abattoirs has been done.
“Engagement sessions with relevant agencies were conducted before the outbreak, especially agencies that safeguard the entrance to Sarawak including port operators, airlines as well as postal and courier service operators on measures to curb the entry of this disease.
“The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) was informed about the development of this disease on Aug 16, 2021 through a weekly meeting and all agencies under the committee were instructed to assist Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) Sarawak in efforts to curb this disease,” he added.
Elaborating, Dr Rundi said the ASF outbreak started to spread in Lawas District under Limbang Division around July last year as a result of wild boar hunting activities along the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.
“The ASF cases in Sabah and in Nunukan and Krayan regions in North Kalimantan are believed to be the cause of the spread of the epidemic to Sarawak where it has caused several divisions to be declared ASF control areas starting with Limbang and Miri in July 2021.
“Control order has been implemented and until today, cases of ASF have been reported in several divisions in Sarawak namely from the backyard farms in village/longhouses and also commercial farms.
“Wild boar hunting activities near the border and poor farm biosecurity are the main causes of infection. Usually, index cases are first reported in villages adjacent to or close to the border before spreading to other areas,” he said.
DVS Sarawak, Dr Rundi added, is still actively carrying out awareness campaigns and surveillance on ASF as well as Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) in village areas and commercial farms since March 2021.
“Since the first case was reported in Lawas in 2021, at least three sessions and discussions have been held with commercial farm breeders and breeders’ associations in Kuching/Samarahan/Serian, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri/Limbang divisions,” he said. — DayakDaily
