A piggery in central QLD has lost $100k of livestock in an early morning fire in a farrowing shed.
In Biloela, more than 60 sows and about 600 piglets died in the blaze, which was first reported to fire crews about 1:45am on Monday, The Morning Bulletin reports.
Australian Pork Limited's general manager of communications Emily Mackintosh said the fire had obliterated about one week's worth of production, however it was not expected to impact on the price of pork in the region.
"Any loss of a life of an animal in a fire is tragic," Mackintosh said. "There were no human injuries and they (staff) were able to get a lot of the rest of the pigs out before the fire took hold. You're not going to see an impact on pork prices."
Mackintosh said: "whilst it is under investigation, it isn't suspicious and potentially pointing to an electrical fault with one of the heat lamps."
Bettafields Piggery co-owner Laurie Brosnan said the toll could have been higher, had it not been for the fire starting in a complex set down for decommission.
"There was not many stock remaining in there at this point," he said. "Some (pigs) were saved; some have perished in the fire. It was a reasonably sized fire…we limited the damage as much as we could."
The fire was brought under control just before 3am yesterday.
Biloela Police officer in charge Senior Sergeant Nick Paton said a forensic investigation team would attend the scene; however the fire had not appeared to be suspicious.