Threat to the Christmas Ham.

Here we are, just a few weeks from Christmas when a traditional ham will be on most peoples shopping list.  Unfortunately, the massive Australian pork industry is facing a threat from a deadly disease that has been sweeping through Asia and has now reached East Timor to our orth.

African Swine Fever has the capacity to wipe out Australia's $5 billion domestic pork industry which provides employment for  thirty-six thousand people.   While it poses no threat to humans, once it gains a hold pigs swiftly hemorrhage and die within five to fifteen days of contacting symptoms  It is now rampant in China and this has resulted in the death of  200 million pigs so far this year..

The Australian pig industry is bolstering its defences.  Clothing and footwear worn by workers needs to be disinfected daily and farms are reluctant to welcome visitors because this virus is exceptionally infective.  Our tourist trade is a massive threat to the pork industry.  Travellers carrying the disease on their shoes or clothing could unwittingly introduce it to this country.

Perhaps the biggest threat of African Swine Fever comes from undeclared food products brought through customs  by visitors.     Since the alert sounded last November, customs inspectors have seized  twenty-seven tonnes - that is a hundred kilogram a week - of illegal pork products visitors have had in their luggage and which was not declared on their entry documents.

In Asia, the pig is often a part of domestic households.  It has high priority in Asian diets and it is common for visitors to bring a favoured delicacy as a treat for friends or relatives in Australia.  All it would taker is for an infected item to make it through the custom check for African Swine fever to gain a bridgehead in Australia and decimate our pig population.

Our vibrant universities attract big numbers of students from Asian countries and when they holiday in their homes countries there is a high risk of the disease being transferred back here on their clothes. Parents are particularly prone to ask friends visiting Australia to deliver a home cooked delicacy that their son or daughter would cherish.  Unfamiliarity with the English language results in much of this not being declared.

It seems that custom screenings will be stepped up with particular attention given to visitors from affected countries.  In the past, confiscation with a warning was often the outcome but perhaps we need to impose heavy fines to get the message across that undeclared meat items are a serious security threat.

Australia's 2.5 million domestic pigs are an important industry, but we also have about fifteen million feral pigs.  If African Swine fever got a hold in the feral  pig population  that would be something we would never manage to eradicate.