African swine fever outbreak spreading widely in Vietnam

Pigs are seen at a farm exterior Hanoi, Vietnam June 28, 2019. REUTERS/Kham

HANOI, Nov 25 (Reuters) – An African swine fever outbreak is spreading broadly in Vietnam and is hurting the native farming trade, forcing the culling of 3 times the variety of hogs culled final yr, the federal government stated on Thursday.

“The outbreak is evolving in a sophisticated method,” the federal government stated in a press release. “It’s threatening to unfold on a big scale.”

The outbreak has this yr unfold to 2,275 areas, in 57 in another country’s 63 cities and provinces, the federal government stated, including that the authorities have thus far this yr culled 230,000 hogs.

African swine fever is innocent to people however usually deadly to pigs. It originated in Africa earlier than spreading to Europe and Asia and has killed tons of of hundreds of thousands of pigs.

Vietnam reported its first African swine fever instances amongst its hog herd in February 2019. The illness compelled the culling of round 20% of its hog herd and doubled home value of pork as of early final yr.

The outbreak subsided throughout the remainder of final yr and early this yr, permitting the nation to rebuild its hog herd.

Enhancing by Martin Petty

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