East Timor reports first African swine fever cases

The first outbreaks of African swine fever have been reported by the island nation of East Timor.

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Dusan Petkovic | istockphoto.com

Still more outbreaks in other countries across Asia

As East Timor confirms its first ever cases of African swine fever (ASF), the number of Asian states reporting the disease this year in domestic pigs has increased to 11, while there have been further outbreaks in Myanmar, the Philippines, Russia’s Far East and South Korea, and Vietnam’s cull now exceeds 5 million animals.

A cluster of about 100 outbreaks of African swine fever in the municipality of Dili have been reported by the agriculture ministry of East Timor to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in the past week. Affected animals — an estimated 405 dead out of a total pig population in the area of 44,000 — belonged to smallholders living in or near Dili, the capital city of the Maritime Southeast Asian state also known as Timor-Leste.

Source of the infection is unknown, and other cases are suspected in the municipalities of Baucau and Liquica, which are also on the island’s northern coast.

Australia’s authorities have expressed concerns that ASF has spread so rapidly to East Timor, which is just 650 kilometers away.

That the virus appeared to jump so quickly the 1,500-2,000 kilometers to East Timor from the Philippines and Vietnam is “alarming,” a livestock analyst told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Preparedness for a possible incursion of ASF has been stepped up across Australia, but particularly in the Northern Territories, where there are many backyard pig keepers and feral pigs, as well as close links with Southeast Asia.

ASF spreads in South Korea

Since South Korea confirmed its first cases of ASF in mid-September, the number of confirmed outbreaks has risen to nine, with more than 15,400 animals lost to the disease through mortality or culling to prevent further spread of the virus, according to official reports from the agriculture ministry to the OIE.

Over the past week, the ministry has reported seven new outbreaks, involving 8,300 pigs in total. Like the first two outbreaks, three of the latest farms to be affected are in the province of Gyeonggi, while four of the most recent cases have been on Ganghwa island, part of Incheon metropolitan city region. Gyeonggi and Incheon are in the northwest of the country, near Seoul and the border with North Korea, which reported its first and only ASF cases to the OIE in May.

South Korean news agency, Yonhap reports that a further ASF outbreak is suspected in Gyeonggi, around 40 kilometers from Seoul. Already, 67,000 pigs have been culled in the country, and the total is soon expected to exceed 94,000 as animals at high risk of infection are also destroyed, according to the agriculture ministry.

Further ASF cases are expected in South Korea, and approaching Typhoon Mitag is hampering the country’s efforts to step up quarantine and hygiene operations to control the further spread of the ASF virus. Pork supplies are expected to return to normal after the lifting of a temporary ban on all pig movements throughout the country.

The pig population has been “wiped out” in the northwestern province of Pyongan in North Korea, reports Yonhap.

20,000 pigs lost to ASF in the Philippines

Although the agriculture department of the Philippines has not reported any further ASF outbreaks to the OIE over the past week, the virus is spreading rapidly in the country’s top pig-producing regions, reports Manila Bulletin.

According to the government, 20,000 pigs have died or been destroyed as the result of the disease so far, which represents 0.15% of the 1.23 million head in the Philippines. About one-third of that number tested positive for the ASF virus, while the rest were culled to control the spread of the infection.

The most recent mortalities were 1,000 animals in Pangasinan, a province in the Ilocos region in the west of the island of Luzon. Local sources told the Manila Bulletin that the disease is already present in 16 areas of the country.

While receiving support from the president over his handling of the ASF situation, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar has been urged by the country’s pig producers to be more transparent about the perceived rapid spread of the disease.

According to Dar, the country’s authorities are following a “1-7-10” protocol to control ASF. This involves culling all pigs within 1 kilometer of a confirmed outbreak, increased surveillance of farms within a 7-kilometer radius, and mandatory reporting of any sign of disease in those within 10 kilometers of the outbreak facility.

Spike in new ASF outbreaks in Russia’s Far East

Over the past week, the agriculture ministry in Moscow has reported a further 20 new outbreaks of ASF in the Far East region to the OIE.

Like other outbreaks in the federal district since July, the majority of the latest cases were in small backyard herds — each between one and 102 animals — in Yevreyskaya (Jewish autonomous oblast), Primorsky krai, and Amur oblast. As well as one outbreak in a wild boar, cases were also detected at two farms. One of these was in Primorsky krai, where there were about 100 ASF cases out of a herd of 1,100 pigs, and the other affected premises was in Amur, where four of the 286 animals died.

These latest outbreaks bring the total in the region to 31, with more than 2,100 animals lost through mortality or culling.

China, Myanmar each report 1 new ASF outbreak

About five weeks after the last reported ASF outbreak, the disease has hit another backyard pig herd in Myanmar, according to the latest report from the animal health agency to the OIE.

In mid-September, three pigs died in the Tachileik district of Shan state. Shan is the location of the country’s three previously confirmed ASF outbreaks. Source of the infection is unknown but the authorities blame illegal movements of animals, swill feeding, and fomites for the transmission of the virus.

Sporadic ASF outbreaks in Guangxi province have been reported by China’s agriculture ministry since February. The latest cases — representing the sixth outbreak in the province since that time — were detected at a slaughterhouse in Wuzhou city in late August after two pigs of a group of 120 died, according to the official report to the OIE.

Pig losses in Vietnam reach 5 million

More than 5 million pigs have been culled in Vietnam in efforts to control the spread of ASF, reports Vietnam News. The disease has infected 7,700 communes in almost 650 districts of all of the country’s 63 provinces/cities.

The United States recently held a training course in Hanoi to assist Vietnam to tackle major transboundary diseases, such as ASF. The U.S. has also provided Vietnam with lab equipment to diagnose ASF, as well as a number of studies, assessments and seminars.

View our continuing coverage of the African swine fever outbreak.

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