Indonesia Investigates Deaths of 880 Pigs in Bali from December to January, African Swine Fever?

Australian authorities have been on high alert for months amid fears the arrival of the disease is inevitable.

Risk to Australian livestock

The fever has been reported in around 50 countries, including China, Belgium, Slovakia, Cambodia, North Korea, South Korea, and Vietnam.

The spread of the disease has also reached Timor Leste, a nation less than 700 kilometres from Darwin, posing an increased risk to Australia.

Australia's chief veterinary officer, Mark Schipp, has emphasised that the country has good biosecurity systems at both the border and on its farms that could keep the disease out.

In December, the Australian Government announced an extra $66 million dollars worth of funding to boost biosecurity at Australia's borders against ASF.

This included the deployment of more biosecurity officers, six new detector dogs, and two new 3D X-ray machines at mail centres in Sydney and Melbourne.

Nevertheless, Dr Schipp said in November that "it's the biggest threat to the commercial raising of pigs we've ever seen."

"It's the biggest threat to any commercial livestock of our generation."

The pork industry provides around 34,000 jobs nationwide.

Authorities reported confiscating at least 32 tonnes of cooked pork products at Australian airports last year.

Margo Andrae, chief executive of industry body Pork Australia Limited, has said that almost 50 per cent of seized pork products contained traces of ASF.

A Vietnamese woman was deported in October last year after attempting to smuggle 4.6 kilograms of uncooked pork and other food items into Australia.

Australians caught bringing in pork products could face criminal prosecution or civil court action, and be ordered to pay up to $420,000 and be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail.

Precautions elsewhere