Reports coming in of pig and boar deaths outside Sabah s swine fever-hit Pitas district thestar.com.my - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thestar.com.my Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Sabah Veterinary Services Department (DVS) has declared a potential outbreak of the African Swine Fever (ASF) in Pitas following the discovery of the virus among pigs in the district, according to Malaymail and The Straits Times.
The outbreak would mark the first reported cases of the disease, which is fatal to pigs but harmless for humans, in Malaysia.
On 23 February, Deputy Chief Minister Jeffrey Kitingan, who is also state Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, said pigs in the Pitas district would be culled under a state enactment, with more than 2,000 facing a culling to prevent further spread.
“Initial tests showed that eight of the 13 samples collected from the pigs in Pitas showed positive results for ASF,” said Mr Kitingan, in a statement, adding that results of tests looking for the disease in DNA sequencing would be available in a day or two.
Pgymy elephants at a forest reserve in Sabah. Many of the animals have been killed in the past few years after encroaching into oil palm plantations. Filepic
KOTA KINABALU: The merciless killing of a Bornean pygmy is a clear signal for everyone to buck up or Sabah s elephants could be staring at extinction before the decade is over, a conservationist warns.
Describing the deaths of three elephants within three weeks of the new year as alarming, conservationist Alexander Yee said that real action needed to be taken as talk of conservation plans had failed to resolve the key problem of elephant deaths.