North Korea Confirms First African Swine Fever Outbreak

(ROME, ITALY) African Swine Fever (ASF) continues to spread across the Asian continent as North Korea becomes the fifth country hit by the deadly disease, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The disease is fatal to pigs and wild hogs but poses no risk to human health. Along with the first reported outbreak in North Korea last week, China reported new cases in two provinces and Vietnam confirmed outbreaks in five new provinces across the country. To date, more than 1.7 million pigs have died are been culled in Vietnam, approximately six thousand combined in Cambodia and Mongolia, about 100 in North Korea, and 1.2 million in China – according to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. In China, however, the real losses are unknown. Just last week, CoBank Economist Will Sawyer suggested that ASF had led to the loss of hundreds of millions of pigs in China and Southeast Asia. So far, no cases have been reported in North America but USDA remains vigilant. There is no treatment or vaccine available for the disease and the only method successful in stopping it is total depopulation of all affected or exposed herds.