Australian experts are warning that an outbreak of the pig disease 'swine fever' could easily and rapidly spread across Australia.
The researchers at the University of Western Australia Institute of Agriculture (UWA) say swine fever, which is unrelated to swine flu, could easily spread to Australia's domesticated pigs by way of the feral pig population.
Australia’s has as many as 20 million feral pigs and a classical swine fever outbreak, starting in north Queensland, could spread widely across Australia, potentially posing a risk to Australia’s domestic pig population.
The team at UWA, led by Professor George Milne of the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, developed a computer model which simulated the effect of wild pigs moving across the landscape and according to the model, given the right seasonal conditions, swine fever could spread among feral pigs and become endemic and virtually impossible to eradicate in Australia.
Professor Milne says the time of the outbreak and seasonal factors are absolutely critical to how quickly the disease could spread and the greatest danger of a rapidly spreading epidemic is at the start of the dry season, when feral pigs gather around water sources.
Professor Milne says it is known that male pigs travel great distances and can therefore spread the disease far and wide, and any effective strategy to combat an outbreak during the dry season would have to involve targeting adult male herds.