PIG DEATHS IN KUPANG CAUSED BY COLIBACILLOSIS

Kupang, May 1 (ANTARA) - The unexpected death of some 20 pigs in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) provincial city of Kupang in the past two weeks was due to infection or disease caused by colon bacilli (colibacillosis).

"The death of pigs in Kupang was caused by colibacillosis. It has nothing to do with the global swine flu pandemic," the NTT chapter of the Indonesian Veterinarians Association chairperson Maria Geong said here on Friday.

She said pork consumers in NTT should not fear for a possibility that the swine flu virus may also attack the province, because the pigs raised there were purely local, and did not come from other regions.

When the fears about the swine flu virus that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico started to develop in Indonesia, Maria Geong said pork consumers in East Nusa Tenggara began to worry about it and stopped eating pork.

"The pork consumers in Flores island called me almost everyday asking about the matter. Then I tried to assure them that the swine flu would not spread in Indonesia because of its hot temperature, including NTT," Geong said.

She added that almost 80 percent of the people in NTT had pork but following the spread of the swine flu scare, they became reluctant to eat it.

Lasar Tabelak, a pig farmer here on Thursday reported that at least 20 of his livestock had died in the past two weeks.

"We do not know the kind of the disease the pigs suffered from, but at least 20 of them have died in the past two weeks," Tabelak said.

As his pigs started to die one by one, Tabelak consulted a local veterinarian who then prescribed diarrhea medicine for the fo to give to the rest of his pigs, and none of them died ever since.

Meanwhile, NTT animal husbandry office spokesman Martinus Djawa said he had yet to receive reports about the case, and called on the local people to remain calm and not to be disturbed by the swine flue case in Mexico.

Martinus Djawa said it is most unlikely that the swine flue virus would attack East Nusa Tenggara because its hot climate.