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Since September 28th, all of the reports of African Swine Fever from China have come from Liaoning Province - which was the first province to report an outbreak in early August.
This week two new cities have reported outbreaks; Dalian yesterday, and Anshan on on Tuesday. Today the MOA reports a second outbreak from Anshan City.
Anshan City, Liaoning Province, detects African swine fever
Date: 2018-10-12 16:43 Author: Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Press Office
The Information Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs was released on October 12, and Anshan City, Liaoning Province, again detected the epidemic situation of pigs in Africa.
At 12 o'clock on October 12, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs received a report from the China Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center. The samples submitted by the Liaoning Provincial Center for Animal Disease Control and Prevention were diagnosed as African by the China Center for Animal Health and Epidemiology (National Center for Animal Disease Research). Swine fever. The positive samples were from a farmer in Xintai Town, Taian County, Anshan City. The farmer had 120 pigs, 88 epidemics and 72 deaths.
Immediately after the outbreak, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs sent a steering group to the local area. The local government has started the emergency response mechanism as required, and adopted measures such as blockade, culling, harmless treatment, disinfection, etc., to treat all the sick and culled pigs harmlessly. At the same time, all live pigs and susceptible animals and products are prohibited from entering or leaving the blockade. At present, the above epidemic has been effectively disposed of.
Liaoning Province has reported roughly half of the approximately 3 dozen ASF outbreak in China since the virus was first detected there in early August 2018. Exactly how it arrived, and has been spread, remains unknown, although the transport of contaminated feed and/or pork products are suspected.
While ASF has never been reported in North America, the potential exists for its importation - such as we saw with the arrival of PEDV five years ago - apparently imported from China (see mBio: PEDV - Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus – An Emerging Coronavirus).
With ASF also spreading widely in Eastern Europe and Russia, and recently detected as far west as Belgium, the potential avenues for arrival into North America continue to increase.
Although not a human health risk, African Swine Fever represents a serious threat to the pork industry, local economies, and even to food security for some nations.
