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Fri, February 10, 2012
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Indonesia Lifts Ban on Swine, Pork Imports
Arti Ekawati | February 14, 2010

Swine flu is a common and sometimes fatal respiratory disease among pigs. With fears of a global epidemic running high last year, the government placed a ban on imports of pigs and pork. (AFP Photo) Swine flu is a common and sometimes fatal respiratory disease among pigs. With fears of a global epidemic running high last year, the government placed a ban on imports of pigs and pork. (AFP Photo)
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The Trade Ministry has lifted a ban on imports of swine, pork and derivatives that was issued last year because of concerns about the H1N1 virus.

“With the new regulation, all regulations and decrees on the temporary ban of the swine products are automatically lifted,” Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said on Sunday.

The decision to lift the import ban was made because there have been no cases of the virus spreading from swine or pork to humans, Mari said.

The Trade Ministry temporarily banned imports of swine and pork in May 2009 after the Agriculture Ministry issued a similar decree in April 2009.

However, the World Health Organization said in June last year that animal products handled in a hygienic way were not a source of the H1N1 virus, commonly called swine flu, and would be safe to consume.

Mangku Sitepoe, a senior veterinary expert from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said the import ban should not have been applied in the first place because it had been scientifically proven that the virus is unable to spread from swine to humans.

To say that humans could be infected by eating pork or pork products was wrong, Mangku said.

“The truth is, the virus spreads only from human to human and from human to swine, not vice versa, not yet,” he told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

“Therefore, at present people should not be afraid to consume pork and other swine products.”

Mangku said the WHO had designated the H1N1 virus a pandemic for three reasons — the virus spreads from human to human, it is a mutated form of the same virus that caused a worldwide influenza pandemic in 1918, and it has spread across many countries.

According to WHO data, as of Feb. 7, 2010, 212 countries and territories had reported laboratory-confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, resulting in 15,292 deaths.

Indonesia imported 23,000 tons of pork in 2008, the Trade Ministry said.

In the same year, the country exported 29,000 tons of live swine and 48,700 tons of pork.

Most of the live swine and pork was exported to neighboring Singapore.

The majority of the swine in Indonesia is raised by small-scale, family-run farms.

There are about 7.4 million pigs in Indonesia, with about 1.6 million in East Nusa Tenggara, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

There are 900,000 pigs in Bali, 876,000 pigs in West Kalimantan, 760,000 pigs in North Sumatra, 570,000 pigs in Papua and 530,000 pigs in South Sulawesi.

Most of the remaining pigs are in Java.