Malaysia to cull 3,000 pigs after African swine fever discovery

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia plans to cull 3,000 wild and domestic pigs after an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in wild boar and backyard pigs in the state of Sabah on Borneo island in mid-February.

The disease was detected in at least 300 pigs in three districts – Pitas, Kota Marudu, and Beluran – after a reported case involving the death of a wild boar last month, according to a World Organization for Animal Health alert issued on Friday. This was the first discovery of the disease in Malaysia, the alert said.

Twenty-two pigs have already been culled in efforts to curb the outbreak, said Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Jeffrey Kitingan in a statement on Sunday.

“It is estimated that there are about 2,000 pigs in Pitas and about a thousand wild bearded pigs within a radius of 50 km (31 miles). All these animals will have to be culled,” said Kitingan, who is also the agriculture and fisheries minister.

ASF, which is deadly to pigs but harmless to humans, poses a threat to food stocks.

China, the world’s biggest pork producer, reported new variants of ASF last week, natural mutations in the virus that ravaged China’s pig herd during 2018 and 2019 and which continues to kill hogs.