Geelong scientists in global pig virus fight

Geelong scientists are working as part of an international effort to combat a disease that could threaten Australia’s pork industry.

Geelong scientists are working as part of an international effort to combat a disease threatening Australia’s pork industry.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has declared coming weeks critical to keeping deadly African swine fever out of Australia.

ASF is a serious and contagious viral disease of domestic and wild pigs and can kill almost all the pigs it infects.

If ASF was to arrive in Australia it would have a significant impact on pig health and production, market access for pork products and economy.

“The reported emergence of new variants of the ASF virus in Asia is concerning,” Mr Littleproud said.

Geelong scientists are working to stop African swine fever

Scientists at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong are working to combat the virus.

Dr David Williams, Leader of the OIE Reference Laboratory for African Swine Fever at the centre, said ACDP was working with overseas partners to identify and characterise the new variant virus in order to better understand the threat they pose to pig production.

ACDP director Trevor Drew said ACDP staff are members of the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation and World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Standing Group of Experts for African swine fever and have been actively engaged in providing advice on the prevention and control of ASF.

“We are also an OIE Reference Laboratory for ASF and have provided training and confirmatory diagnosis to neighbouring countries,” he said.

“We also undertake surveillance for ASF in Australia, including testing of suspicious cases and screening of illegal imports of meat, seized at airports, ports and through the mail.

“Thankfully, no pigs in Australia have ever been infected with ASF, but we have detected positive samples of meat which was being smuggled into the country.”

Prof Drew said China alone has lost more than 40 per cent of its pig population to the disease.

“The virus does not infect people, but there is no authorised vaccine and it represents a serious risk to our pig industry,” Prof Drew said.

“The new variants of ASF are a considerable concern, because they are reported to cause more chronic disease, with fewer deaths, so it makes it much more difficult to spot the disease.

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“We do not know the source of these variants, but it might be a consequence of the use of unlicensed vaccines in Asia, which are not properly made and can still cause disease.

“People should never to bring, or ship any meat or meat products into the country and the same is true for any veterinary medicines – even if they are licenced in another country.

“These illegal vaccines to ASF certainly represent a significant risk to pig production in Australia.”

Mr Littleproud said his department was aware of this developing situation and was pulling out all stops to ensure ASF does not arrive here, including interventions at the border, targeted operations to detect fraudulently labelled imported product, and conducting more testing of pork products seized through international mail.

Originally published as Geelong scientists in global pig virus fight