August 31, 2018

Update: China announces the fifth case of African swine fever outbreak
 

China has reported its fifth case of African swine fever (ASF) outbreak in the province of Anhui, infecting a total of 185 pigs. The news comes a little over a week after the announcement of its fourth ASF outbreak in Zhejiang province.

The outbreak killed 80 out of 459 pigs on a farm in Nanling County, in Wuhu city whilst the remaining hogs were culled, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The farm is 350 kilometres (217 miles) directly west of Shanghai.

The 10th largest pork producer, Anhui is surrounded by Jiangsu, Henan and Zhejiang, where other major outbreaks were detected as well as.

China's agriculture ministry said that it could not rule out the possibility of new outbreaks but have banned the transportation of hogs and related products in the affected area.

Chinese authorities have contacting farmers and veterinarians to register cases as soon as possible in order to keep control of infection rates.

Following the country's four other outbreaks, more than 25,000 pigs have been culled, highlighting the challenge of containing the highly contagious disease.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) concluded that the rapid spread of the disease may be caused by transport of pig products rather than live pigs.

Generally, the disease is transmitted by ticks and direct contact between animals, and can also travel via contaminated food, animal feed and people moving from one place to another. At the moment, there is no curable vaccination for ASF.
 

Source: Reuters