China cracks down on obstruction of African swine fever reporting

BEIJING – China’s agriculture ministry said on Wednesday it was issuing new rules to stop behaviour that was leading to the spread of African swine fever, a highly contagious disease that has already killed hundreds of thousands of pigs in the country.

The new rules state that it is strictly forbidden to delay or obstruct reporting of new outbreaks, to issue false test reports or illegal health certificates and to illegaly dispose of infected animals.

It also reported a new case of the disease in the city of Huaihua in southern Hunan province, which killed 55 pigs on a farm of 73 animals.

By Beijing Monitoring Desk and Dominique Patton