Thailand, one of Asia’s top pork producers, is intensifying efforts to hold off a lethal pig virus that’s causing havoc as it spreads across the region.African swine fever – a disease that kills nearly all the pigs it infects – has been spreading through Asia from China and Mongolia to Vietnam and Cambodia.
What started with a few dozen dead pigs in north-eastern China is sending shock waves through the global food chain.Last August, a farm with fewer than 400 hogs on the outskirts of Shenyang was found to harbour African swine fever, the first ever occurrence of the contagious viral disease in the country with half the world’s pigs. 47 head had died, triggering emergency measures including mass culling and a blockade to stop the transportation of livestock.
Bans on pork products from China may be widened as part of emergency measures to stem the global spread of African swine fever.The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations agency spearheading an international effort to control the deadly pig virus, plans to release recommendations for governments after a crisis meeting in Bangkok this week.
