BEIJING – China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) confirmed the presence of African swine fever (ASF) at a hog farm in Baotou City of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture said in a recent report. MARA detected the outbreak in late April, and then notified the US Embassy in Beijing on May 12.

The FAS report said 432 live hogs were exposed of which 381 animals were sick and 343 had died. All of the hogs from the farm — sick, dead and culled hogs — were destroyed, the report said.

“All live hogs and pork related products are prohibited from being transferred out of the epidemic area, and live hogs are prohibited from being transferred into the epidemic area,” according to the report. “Live hog farms in the jurisdiction are monitored and disinfected. At present, investigation of the epidemic and trace back efforts are ongoing.”

In a global overview documenting the spread of ASF, the World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reported that the global pattern of distribution of ASF from 2016 to 2020 “... reveals a serious deterioration due to the spread of the disease, mainly in Europe, and in Asia, after the first occurrence in China (People’s Republic of) in 2018.”

Europe accounted for 67% of the outbreaks reported through immediate notifications and follow-up reports, WAHIS said. But the highest impact in terms of animal losses was reported in Asia at 6,733,791 animals lost, which represents 82% of the total global reported losses.