Headed by Professor George Milne of the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, researchers at The University of Western Australia (UWA) have concluded that a classical swine fever outbreak, starting in north Queensland, could spread widely through Australia’s 20 million feral pigs, potentially posing a risk to Australia’s domestic pig population.

“Our computer model simulated the effect of wild pigs moving across the landscape and showed how classical swine fever could spread among feral pigs in the right seasonal conditions, becoming endemic and almost impossible to eradicate,” Professor Milne said.