An outbreak of the deadly pig disease African swine fever threatens to spread from China to other countries, according to the United Nations.
The rapid onset of African Swine Fever (ASF) in China, and its detection in areas more than one thousand kilometres apart within the country, could mean the deadly pig virus may spread to other Asian countries anytime.
There is no effective vaccine to protect swine from the disease. And, while the disease poses no direct threat to human health, outbreaks can be devastating with the most virulent forms lethal in 100 percent of infected animals.
So far, in efforts to control the spread of the disease, Chinese authorities have culled more than 24,000 pigs in four provinces.
China is a major pig producing country and accounts for approximately half the global population of swine, estimated at 500 million.
Its value chain involves a very large and wide range of producers from small family holdings to large-scale commercial operators.
While this is not the first time African Swine Fever has been detected outside of Africa - outbreaks in Europe and the Americas date back to the 1960s - its detection and 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 is also high.
''Movement of products'
The ASF virus is very hardy and can survive long periods in very cold and very hot weather, and even in dried or cured pork products.
The strain detected in China is similar to one that infected pigs in eastern Russia in 2017 but, so far, and while the investigations continue, the China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center has found no conclusive evidence of this latest outbreak's source or linkages.
"The movement of pig products can spread diseases quickly and, as in this case of African Swine Fever, it's likely that the movement of such products, rather than live pigs, has caused the spread of the virus to other parts of China," explained Juan Lubroth, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Chief Veterinarian.
FAO's Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) is now communicating with authorities in China to monitor the situation and to respond to the outbreak inside the country, as well as with authorities in neighbouring countries.
UK pig farmers and keepers have been reminded not to feed kitchen or catering waste to pigs to help prevent the spread of the disease.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) stressed that the risk to the UK from ASF in China was ‘negligible’.
If the disease were to reach the UK it would have a devastating effect on the export market and would also mean the humane culling of pigs on infected premises to prevent further spread.
