Enhancing surveillance of the northern Australian feral pig population for African swine fever and other high impact pests and diseases

A significant risk to Australia’s agricultural sector at present is African swine fever (ASF). This is a highly contagious viral disease of domestic and feral pigs. It has no vaccine and kills about 80 per cent of the pigs it infects. The disease has become established across much of Asia and was recently detected in Timor-Leste, Indonesia and Papua-New Guinea. If ASF were to enter Australia, there is a risk that the feral pig population would become a reservoir for the disease. Once established in the feral pig population, ASF would be very challenging to eradicate and would be a constant transmission risk for the domestic pork industry.