African Swine Fever Outbreak Reported in Tianjin

By Edoardo Donati Fogliazza, November 30, 2018

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs reported a new outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in Tianjin on Friday, November 30.

According to the report released by the Ministry of Agriculture, the virus was detected in a farm in Ninghe District, where it already caused the death of 67 animals among the 361 raised there.

Authorities have already implemented the routine security measures to contain the outbreak, including issuing a quarantine on the structure, the culling of infected animals and sterilization of the facilities.

According to Reuters, this latest case of infection by African swine fever adds to more than 70 others reported in the country since August, when the initial outbreak was reported at a farm in Shenyang, Liaoning.

Since then, the disease has spread across China and has been detected in areas thousands of kilometers apart, probably transmitted through pig products, as Juan Lubroth, Chief Veterinarian at FAO (UN's Food and Agriculture Organization) suggested in August. A swine fever case was reported for the first time in Beijing on November 23.

While the virus poses no direct threat to humans, the infection could seriously harm the pork industry, especially as China accounts for half of the world's swine population, that FAO estimates at 500 million.

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