African Swine Fever is spreading in Asia, with Vietnam now reporting its first cases of the highly contagious disease that has been most prolific in China’s massive pig population since last August.
All infected pigs found on three farms in Hung Yen and Thai Binh provinces, southeast of the capital Hanoi, were culled, according to a report by Reuters.
The disease, which is incurable in pigs but does not affect humans, has largely affected China, having been reported in 26 of that country’s provinces. The latest case to be reported, this month, was in the Chinese province of Guangxi, which is one of two Chinese provinces that border Vietnam. The other neighboring province, Yunnan, reported its first ASF case last October.
Officials note that pork’s popularity in Asia makes for likely transmission between neighboring countries.
On Feb. 15, Taiwanese officials said security at the Tainan airport detected ASF-tainted pork in a sandwich confiscated on Feb. 5 from a traveler from Vietnam. The Food and Agriculture Organization said the gene sequence from that sample was a 100 percent match with the ASF virus in China, although the exact source of the meat was unknown.
Taiwanese officials said it was their first case of ASF from Vietnam, with all other ASF-positive samples they’ve tested having been traced to China.
Mongolia, another country that borders China, also has reported ASF.
Source : Meatingplace