China reports new African swine fever outbreak

BEIJING: China has confirmed a new outbreak of African swine fever in the eastern province of Anhui.

China, home to the world’s largest hog herd, has reported more than 50 cases of the highly contagious disease, including in Anhui, since the first detected outbreak in early August.

The fever was found on a farm with 8,339 pigs in Qingyang county in the south of Anhui, infecting 96 of the animals and killing 47 of them, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement.

Transportation of pigs in and out of the area has been banned, as has movement of pork products outside the area. Last month, the ministry said it would lift African swine feverrelated restrictions in four Anhui cities hit by previous outbreaks.

In a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Sunday, Tangrenshen Group, a major Chinese pork producer, said the fever was found in feed samples provided by its 51 per centowned subsidiary, Bili Meiyingwei Nutrition Feedstuff, during inspections in the aftermath of the Qingyang outbreak.

Tangrenshen said the origin of the detected fever remained unclear and the matter was still under investigation. It said the impact on its operations would be “relatively small,” with Bili Meiyingwei accounting for only 2.27 per cent of the group’s net profit in the first nine months of 2018.