Bali official Walks Back Confirmation of African Swine Fever

While the rest of the world is focused on the Coronavirus, and Bali Officials have been distracted by the mass death of Pigs across the province ⁠— which earlier this week was confirmed by an Official of the provincial government to have been caused by the African Swine Fever (ASF).

Today, however, we are learning that the Official ⁠— the Head of Bali’s Agriculture and Food Security Agency Ida Bagus Wisnuwardhana ⁠— might have misspoken as authorities are actually still awaiting lab results.

“At the time, I was asked for a statement, and honestly it stressed me out, I was shocked, so I misspoke,” Bagus said earlier today,

Bali official Walks Back

Regional Secretary for the Bali province, Dewa Made Indra, explained that Bagus, who he said had a degree in agriculture and is not a medical professional, incorrectly understood that Pigs exhibiting certain symptoms were equivalent to a positive result before the actual lab results were in.

“Even I have to learn the difference between observation, suspicion, and other things, because those are medical terms,” Indra said.

“But what’s important is that he has rectified his statement.”

We understand that government officials are also human beings and therefore capable of making mistakes, but surely there’s a better protocol in place that would actually prevent such colossal miscommunication from taking place? We sure hope so, though this latest incident may actually be enough to answer that question.

“For the time being, in regards to the swine deaths being caused by ASF is only suspected, it is not confirmed to be positive,” Indra said, as quoted by state news agency Antara.

He noted that there has been a total of 888 pigs death recorded across Bali, and that they died after exhibiting similar symptoms, including fever, diarrhea and vomiting; though another source from the agriculture and food security agency placed the number at nearly 1,200 pigs as of Monday.

Officials said they have sent blood samples to a veterinary laboratory in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, which is said to be better-equipped than the ones in Bali, but that they have yet to receive the results.

Bagus, meanwhile, claims that there have not been any further pig deaths for the past 10 days.  The Bali provincial government held a campaign to promote pork consumption which was aimed to dispel the public’s concerns with regards to the disease and consumption of pork.

“Pork meat is safe, as long as it’s cooked correctly and until it’s well-done,” added Indra.

Bali official Walks Back

https://kumparan.com/