In September last year, Juan Lubroth, FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer said concerning the new emergence of African swine fever in China–“Unfortunately, what we’re seeing so far is just the tip of the iceberg,” Lubroth said.

Image/CIA

“The geographical spread, of which ASF has been repeated in such a short period of time, means that transboundary emergence of the virus, likely through movements of products containing infected pork, will almost certainly occur. So it’s no longer ‘if’ that will happen but when, and what we can do collaboratively to prevent and minimize the damage.”

Since August 2018 when the first African swine fever outbreak was reported in Liaoning Province, China, four Asian countries have reported outbreaks and more than 1.1 million pigs have died or been culled.

In China, 129 ASF outbreaks have been detected in 31 Provinces/Autonomous Region/Municipalities and as of Apr 23 this year, over 1 million pigs have been culled in an effort to halt further spread.

Mongolia was the next country to report ASF. Since its first report on the 15 January 2019, 11 outbreaks in 6 provinces and in Ulaanbaatar have been reported, involving 105 farms/households. More than 3,115 pigs, more than 10 percent of the total pig population in Mongolia, have died/been destroyed due to the ASF outbreaks, FAO reports.

Vietnam saw its first outbreak in February and since that time a total of 24 provinces/cities reported outbreaks, and more than 89,600 pigs have been culled.

Finally, the latest Asian country to report ASF, Cambodia, have reported more than 2400 pigs have died or been culled since reported last month.