Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has confirmed the country’s first outbreak of African swine fever in Lom Kaninh village, Rattanakiri, 636 km northeast of Phnom Penh on April 3rd.

The outbreak was found on a backyard farm in Lom Kaninh village, a border town between Laos and Cambodia. Some 400 hogs were already dead and 100 more were culled to contain the infection.

The ministry has announced a complete ban on the movement of any animals into or out of Lom Kaninh village to prevent the disease from spreading to other locations.

Traffic for 3km on either side of Lom Kaninh is being blocked and extensive surveillance taken up to monitor the area within a 10km radius of the village.

The authorities suspect that the virus might have arrived from Vietnam via cross-border traders of meat and vegetables because the province is not authorised to import pigs from neighbouring countries.