GEORGE TOWN – The government needs to revive the taskforce on the African swine flu, which threatens the country’s RM5 billion pig rearing industry, said lawmaker Sim Tze Tzin.
The Bayan Baru MP, also a former deputy agriculture and agro-based industries minister, said that in the midst of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, it was unsettling to come across reports that the swine flu might have slipped into the country.
“This increases the threat to our country’s biosecurity,” Sim said in a statement.
He was commenting in the wake of reports that Sabah may have detected the swine flu strain among some pigs that were found dead.
Sim urged the federal government to step up its defence by testing as many swine and wild boars as possible, and giving those involved in the industry technical help to improve the biosecurity of their farms.
Sim said that Malaysia still had a chance of avoiding the swine flu becoming a pandemic such as in China, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Formed in 2019, the task force was disbanded after its success in halting the spread of swine flu in the country.
The last major viral attack on pig farming was the Nipah virus in 1998.
Such viruses can occasionally transfer to humans and mutate into the Influenza A variant, which is also contagious, although not as alarming as the Covid-19 strain. – The Vibes, February 21, 2021
