Another Chinese farm hit by African swine fever
- Disease has killed more than 1 million pigs since August
- Added stress for farmers already hit by US-China trade war
A new outbreak of African swine fever has been reported in the central Chinese province of Hunan.
The latest incidence of the disease occurred on a farm at Yongzhou, where 4,600 pigs were being raised, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Friday.
The virus killed 171 of the pigs and a further 270 were found to be sick. Ministry regulations require all pigs on an affected farm to be culled and disposed of, and the area quarantined and decontaminated.
African swine fever was first detected in China in August and has so far killed more than 1 million pigs in China, prompting restrictions on shipments of most of China’s 700 million swine, including healthy animals.
China’s small pig farmers are being wiped out by deadly African swine fever
Supplies of pork, China’s staple meat, to big cities have been disrupted while prices have collapsed in areas with an oversupply of pigs that farmers are barred from shipping to other provinces.
