BEIJING, August 3, 2018 (News Wires) - China reported its first outbreak of the deadly African swine fever (ASF) on Friday, as authorities in Liaoning province in the country's northeast culled almost 1,000 hogs and rushed to control the highly contagious disease. News of the infection will stoke concern about its spread in the world's largest pig herd, and possibly to Japan, the Korean Peninsula and other parts of Asia. Cases have been recorded across Europe, Russia and sub-Saharan Africa, but it has never occurred in East Asia until now, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Some 913 hogs were slaughtered near Shenyang, capital of Liaoning, and the outbreak had been effectively contained, the provincial animal health bureau said. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued an alert following the outbreak, banning farmers from transporting hogs from the affected areas and from feeding the animals with untreated food waste. The ministry said the infection was discovered on Wednesday on a small farm with a herd of 383 pigs in Shenbei New district in Shenyang and was confirmed on Friday. Some 47 pigs died from the disease. "If it can be put under control, it should not be a problem ... but we have to watch the developments very carefully," said Yao Guiling, an analyst with consultancy China-America Commodity Data Analytics.
