Epoch Times
Date: September 29, 2019
By: Frank Fang
In this picture taken on July 10, 2019 porc meat is seen at a butcher stall at a market in Beijing. – China’s pork industry has been left reeling from African swine fever, which has devastated its pig herd, sent pork prices soaring and forced the country to increase imports to satisfy demand — and analysts warn worse is yet to come. (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP) / TO GO WITH STORY: China-livestock-animals-pork, FOCUS by Sebastien RICCI (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)
East Timor became the 10th Asian country to be hit with the disease, following China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea, Laos, Burma, the Philippines, and South Korea. ASF was not found on the Asian continent prior to the initial outbreak in China in August last year. However, none of these governments have publicly attributed their ASF outbreaks to the spreading of the virus from China.
While the disease isn’t dangerous to humans, there is no effective vaccine against the virus, which can spread among domestic and wild pigs.
Chen Chi-chung, minister of Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture, issued the traveler warning on his Facebook page on Sept. 28, saying that the outbreak in East Timor is severe, as it noted a massive number of cases in its first report to the intergovernmental organization World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). [FULL STORY]
