BEIJING (Reuters) – China reported a new African swine fever case on a farm with nearly 20,000 pigs on Monday, the largest farm yet to report the highly contagious disease in the world’s top pork producer.
The new case, one of numerous to be reported in northeast Liaoning province in recent days, shows how difficult it is to control the spread of the disease.
Farms owned by large companies typically have stronger biosecurity, or measures to guard against the spread of the disease, and have until now not reported any outbreaks.
The latest outbreak was one of three new cases confirmed in Liaoning, according to a statement published on Monday on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
The statement did not identify the farm nor its owner, but it said the 19,938-head farm infected with the disease where 221 pigs died was in Jinzhou city.
Another farm of 1,571 pigs in Panjin city also reported an outbreak, which killed 109 pigs, and a smaller farm, also in Panjin, said 129 out of its 270 pigs died from the disease.
The disease was also reported in Tianjin city last week, fuelling fears that it remained far from control.
News of the spread of the disease sent shares at top domestic pork producer Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co Ltd closing down 7 percent on Monday.
Reporting by Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr.