HANOI: Vietnam has been hit by an increasing number of outbreaks of African swine fever, with the number of infected pigs more than tripling in just two weeks, state media said on Tuesday.
The country has detected 972 African swine fever outbreaks so far this year, up from 514 reported in mid-July, the Tien Phong newspaper reported.
The number of pigs infected has risen to more than 100,000 from 30,000 over the same period, the paper said, citing Vietnam’s agriculture ministry. The infected pigs have died or been culled.
“ASF has broken out on a very large scale, spreading across the country, seriously affecting the livestock industry, especially the supply of pork,” Nguyen Xuan Duong, chairman of the Animal Husbandry Association of Vietnam, was quoted as saying. He added that no province is safe from the disease.
African swine fever has disrupted the global pork market for years. In the worst outbreak over 2018-19, about half the domestic pig population died in China, the world’s biggest producer, causing losses estimated at over $100 billion.
