Indonesia detects African swine fever in most of its provinces

Jakarta: Multiple cases of African swine fever had been detected in 32 of Indonesia's 38 provinces, an official said on Monday, warning of risks of further spread of a disease that has killed thousands of hogs in the country this year.

Sahat Panggabean of Indonesia's quarantine agency said the highest density of cases were in the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara, North Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and Riau, and urged local leaders to boost awareness and report more cases to authorities.

African swine fever is not dangerous to humans but is fatal for pigs, and can cause massive losses to farmers.

"We provide specific lands to dispose, as well as incinerators to burn the carcasses," he told a livestreamed weekly meeting of the government, urging communities to avoid throwing infected or dead pigs into rivers.

Panggabean did not provide an estimate for the number of pigs that had died of the disease in Indonesia this year.

He said 6,273 hogs had died of the flu in January in Central Papua province and a further 136 had died there in October. In Papua province there were 220 deaths in February, he said.

Last year, Indonesia reported an outbreak that had killed 35,297 pigs in a herd of 285,034 on the Riau Islands near Singapore. (Reporting by Dewi Kurniawati; Editing by Martin Petty)