China’s swine fever outbreak may spread in Asia, UN agency warns
Food and Agriculture Organisation says movement of pig products could transmit disease across borders
China’s deadly pig virus outbreak could spread to other Asian countries at any time, a United Nations agency has warned.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation raised concerns on Tuesday as China, the world’s largest pork producer, scrambled to contain an outbreak of African swine fever.
More than 24,000 pigs have been culled in four provinces since the first reported incidence in the northeast province of Liaoning in early August.
Last week, the eastern city of Lianyungang culled 14,500 pigs in an attempt to check the disease’s spread.
In a statement the FAO said the cases had been detected in areas more than 1,000km (600 miles) apart, meaning the disease could cross national borders.
The “diverse geographical spread of the outbreaks in China have raised fears that the disease will move across borders to neighbouring countries of Southeast Asia or the Korean Peninsula where trade and consumption of pork products are also high”, the FAO said.