Pig breeders suffer Rp 4.5b losses

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura

Pig breeders in Timika, Mimika regency, Papua province, have suffered losses of up to Rp 4.5 billion (US$500,000) due to the spread of classical swine fever.

"About 8,700 pigs have died from the disease. Five thousand of them were full-grown pigs that would have fetched Rp 5 million to Rp 7 million per head.

"The rest were small pigs that could have been sold for Rp 2 million each. So, the total losses suffered by pig breeders could reach Rp 4.5 billion," Mimika husbandry office head John Wicklif Tegai told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He said pig prices were exorbitant in Timika and other areas across Papua as the animal is often used as a dowry.

Pigs also determine the social status of Papuan residents, John added. The more pigs they have, the more they are looked up to because only rich people can own many pigs.

John said his office was currently making efforts to vaccinate live pigs to prevent the spread of the disease.

"We have received 5,000 doses of vaccine from Jakarta to inoculate the remaining 5,000 pigs," he said.

However, the husbandry office is encountering difficulties as local people do not understand the virus and have rejected vaccinations, he added.

"An infected pig will die if it is vaccinated, but not a healthy one. Local people still don't understand the effects of the vaccine, so we have to teach them about it first. If they accept it, we'll vaccinate their pigs, but if they don't, we won't," John explained.

To keep the virus from spreading to other regencies in Papua, especially those neighboring Mimika such as Paniai, Puncak Jaya and Bintang highlands, Mimika Regent Klemen Tinal has issued a directive to prohibit people from transporting pigs out of Timika.

"We are coordinating with land, sea and air transportation companies, which have agreed not to carry pigs out of Timika," said John.

He said that in the case of such a highly contagious viral disease, infected pigs should be culled.

But he pointed out that such a move in Papua was likely to face public resistance because it would drastically alter the social and financial status of their owners.

Therefore, a huge sum of money would be needed with which to compensate people for culling their pigs, keeping in mind the high prices of pigs in Timika, said John.

"So, what can be done in the time being is to disseminate information about the disease and prohibit pigs from going out of Timika," he said.