According to ABC News, Indonesian authorities have reported the deaths of 888 pigs in Bali, Indonesia as of Jan. 31, 2020.

Authorities in Bali are investigating the cause of the pigs' deaths

According to Reuters, the director of animal health at Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture said on Feb. 5 that the authorities are investigating the deaths of the pigs on the island of Bali, to see if they died of the ASF virus.

Fadjar Sumping Tjatur Rassa, the director of animal health, told Reuters in a text message:

"We are working to stop the deaths of pigs with operational standards for infectious animal diseases such as for the ASF and hog cholera, while we determine whether the cause was truly ASF or something else."

ABC News reported that many of the pigs that died exhibited symptoms of the highly-contagious African Swine Fever (ASF) virus, such as high fever, vomiting and diarrhoea.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture in Indonesia, symptoms of ASF include:

• Fever.
• Seizures.
• Bloody diarrhoea.
• Loss of appetite.
• Difficulty breathing.
• Redness at the tip of the ear (cyanosis).

The outbreak of ASF in Indonesia was first reported in Dec. 2019.

The impact of ASF on pig populations in Asia and cross the globe

In 2019, New Scientist reported that over a quarter of the world's population of pigs, or around 220 million pigs died last year due to the ASF virus or culling to halt the spread of the virus.

In Asia, ASF was first detected in China in August 2018, and has reduced the country's pig population by over 40 per cent, reported ABC News.

As of Jan. 2020, FAO reported that ASF has spread to the following 11 countries in Asia (as seen in the map below):

• China
• Mongolia
• Vietnam
• Cambodia
• North Korea
• Laos
• Myanmar
• The Philippines
• South Korea
• Timor-Leste
• Indonesia

In North Sumatra, the virus has already killed more than 43,000 pigs.

However, there has been no confirmed outbreak on the island of Bali, reported ABC News.

China has banned imports of pigs, wild boars and related products from Indonesia in Dec. 2019, according to Reuters.

In North Sumatra, meat and meat products are not allowed to be exported out of affected areas and people must undergo bio-security screening if they have come in contact with infected animals.

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Top photo by Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals