The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released a message recently that pigs in two farms in Guangzhou and Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, had been diagnosed with African swine fever. Since then, 41 pigs have fallen ill, with 20 confirmed dead.

According to Nanfang Daily, all pigs in the farms were culled and disposed of.

The spread of the epidemic has been effectively controlled, no other outbreaks reported in the province as of December 24th. The supply of pork in Hong Kong and Macao remains stable.

A blockade order was issued to isolate the farms in Guangzhou and Zhuhai, extending 3 km from the affected area. All livestock and produce are prohibited from being transferred out of the affected area. The monitoring and investigation of key links such as pig farms and slaughterhouses has been implemented.

According research, the pigs in the Zhuhai Meat Factory originated from Shunde District, Foshan. In order to reduce the risk, a total of 342 pigs in the stockpiles have been disposed of and the site has been completely disinfected.

Guangdong has set up five emergency response mechanisms to handle and isolate outbreaks, such as emergency attendance, investigative daily reports and early warning weekly reports. A total of 560,000 personnel were dispatched and 248 million pigs were inspected.

The province has carried out special investigations on frozen pork, as well as quarantine inspection on 1,143 aircraft and 288 vessels from infected areas, and intercepted 14.46 tons of non-infected pork and related products.

African swine fever is not a zoonosis, meaning it cannot infect people or other animals. It is limited to pigs. International organizations such as the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the World Organization for Animal Health have not included African swine fever under their list of zoonotic diseases.

Author: Steven Yuen, Song Hainan

Editor: Simon