Asian Nations Scramble to Contain Pig Disease Outbreaks

By HAU DINH and SAM McNEIL HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Asian nations are scrambling to contain the spread of highly contagious African swine fever, with Vietnam culling 2.6 million pigs and China reporting more than a million dead in an unprecedentedly huge epidemic some fear is out of control.Smaller outbreaks have been reported in Hong Kong, Taiwan, North Korea, Cambodia and Mongolia after cases were first reported in China's northeast in August. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a weekly update on the scale of infections on Thursday which reported a new outbreak in Laos.With pork supplies dwindling as leading producer China and hard-hit Vietnam destroy huge numbers of hogs and tighten controls on shipments, prices have soared by up to 40% globally and caused shortages in other markets."This is the largest animal disease outbreak in history," said Dirk Pfieffer, a veterinary epidemiologist at the City University of Hong Kong. "We've never had anything like it."In South Korea, where diets rely heavily on pork, there is concern an outbreak could hurt an industry with 6,300 farms raising more than 11 million pigs.African swine fever is harmless to people but fatal and highly contagious for pigs, with no known cure or vaccine.Since China first reported an outbreak in early August, 1 million pigs have been culled. It has reported 139 outbreaks all but two of its 34 provinces, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says.The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecas...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: International News Patient Care Source Type: news