African swine fever continues to spread in China

China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has confirmed a first case of ASF in a wild boar in Jilin province in northeastern China.

A recent outbreak was found on a farm of 40 pigs in Yibin city, in Sichuan’s southeast, the country’s largest hog-producing region. Sichuan supplied around 66 million pigs for slaughter last year out of the country’s total of 700 million pigs/year. The outbreak is creating concerns about availability of pork supplies by February.

Yibin is close to Chongqing municipality and Guizhou province, both of which have already reported outbreaks.

ASF has been officially reported in 71 villages. More than 470,000 pigs have been culled in an effort to halt further spread.