China has had a sixth outbreak of African Swine Fever and now has adopted tougher transportation measures to halt the spread of the highly-contagious and deadly disease.
For the first time live hogs from unaffected provinces cannot be transported through those that have reported infections, a move expected to cause major disruption to the country’s pig trade.
And live hog markets have been shut down in the five provinces.
Outbreaks began a month ago in northeastern Liaoning province, central Henan, and the eastern provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
The prohibition effectively prevents slaughterhouses and meat processing factories from using pigs or pork from these regions.
In the latest outbreak 134 hogs died from the disease in Xuancheng city of eastern Anhui province, the second in that province, the agriculture ministry said.
Xuancheng city is about 70 kilometres from another outbreak last week in Wuhu City.
Government officials said more than 38,000 hogs have been culled.
Epidemic culling has basically finished in Liaoning, Henan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, where a total of 37,271 hogs were culled, while another 1,264 hogs were put down by Saturday in Anhui province.
China is the world’s largest hog producer and is a major pork customer for Canada’s pork producers and packers.
