African Swine Fever Losses Growing, Laos Latest Casualty

(ROME, ITALY) African swine fever continues to wreak havoc across Southeast Asia as the country of Laos confirmed its first outbreak of the disease last week. Laos joins Cambodia, China, Mongolia, North Korea, and Vietnam with confirmed cases of ASF since last August. The outcome is fatal for pigs that contract the disease and to date, there are no reliable loss numbers from the region. China currently reports almost 1.2 million head culled since the outbreak, Vietnam says they have culled 2.6 million head while the other countries report around 10,000 culled. Independent guesses place the losses in China alone at nearly half the swine population. The United Nation’s Food and Ag Organization (FAO) coordinate the global response to ASF and provides direction and training for countries affected as well as preventative measures for areas most likely to be affected by the outbreaks.