African Swine Fever Kills Thousands of Pigs in South Sulawesi

Liputan6.com, Gowa -  Thousands of pigs have died since the end of 2022 because of the African Swine Fever (AFS) in South Sulawesi. At least three regencies are affected.

According to the local health authorities, the pigs were showing symptoms such as refusing to eat, fever, bleeding nose and ear bleeding, breathing problem, liquid stools, and also blood in their stool.

The three affected regencies are Gowa, East Luwu, and North Luwu.

On Monday (15/5/2023), the government revealed that thousands of pigs died after showing the clinical signs of AFS.

"The result of the investigation in January 2023 in Gowa Regency estimated there were 4,000 pigs which died," said the Head of Farming and Animal Health Office in South Sulawesi, Nurlina Saking.

Similar cases happened in East Luwu, Nurlina said 1,336 pigs died. Meanwhile, 4,529 pigs died in North Luwu.

Countering African Swine Fever 

Nurlina said that the authorities have gathered data in all regions in South Sulawesi where there are piggeries. Gowa had 25,421 pigs, among them over 4,000 died.

"The result of our analysis, out of 1,000 population, there were 157 that died because of AFS," said Nurlina.

She further mentioned that the pigs in population in Luwu Timur was 24,103, and 1,336 pigs died. Based on the analysis of 1,000 pigs, 55 died because of AFS.

Nurlina said that her office has coordinated with the related agencies to increase awareness in the piggeries, such as spraying disinfectant around cages, and immediately taking care of the sick and dying animals.

Fauzan contributed to this report.