Warnings over pig disease

Farmers, hunters and trampers are being urged to watch out for signs of African swine fever, a deadly disease sweeping through Asia and Eastern Europe.

So far, it hasn’t been detected in New Zealand and the organisations which protect our border and promote our pork products want to keep it that way.

There’s no effective treatment so prevention is the only defence. Here’s what you need to know: ASF is like the cockroach of pig viruses – it can survive almost anything. One of the biggest risks is feeding untreated meat scraps to pigs. Because it can survive in undercooked pork products, as well as various types of processed pork products, and can infect the pigs that eat them.

From the little-known laws file, it’s actually illegal to feed meat to pigs unless it has been cooked at 100 degrees Celsius for an hour. Fines range from $5000 to $15,000 so just don’t do it.

The disease can survive almost indefinitely in frozen meat and is also carried on clothing, footwear, equipment and vehicles. Zealand,’’ NZ Pork general manager David Baines said.

‘‘Our focus is on protecting the supply of fresh, born and raised in New Zealand pork.’’

By keeping it out. With almost 60 per cent of pork eaten in New Zealand imported from countries including China, Poland, Estonia, Denmark and Spain, that means being very careful about the products we let in.

According to MPI, unprocessed pork and pork products can be imported from a limited number of countries.

Of those countries, ASF had been reported only in the European Union, where strict regulations for exports were in place to protect against the disease.

Highly processed pork products, such as canned meat products, could be imported from all countries as the processing was sufficient to kill ASF and other diseases affecting pigs.