Government officials in Vietnam say the country has culled more than 1.2 million pigs infected with African Swine Fever.
Pork Business Dot Com says the virus is continuing to spread quickly through Southeast Asia. Vietnam’s 95 million people consume most of its 30 million pigs domestically.
Pork makes up 75 percent of the total meat consumption in Asia. The virus has spread into 29 Vietnamese provinces.
Many Vietnamese provinces weren’t able to cull pigs properly once the outbreak got going.
Some of the biggest challenges to culling pigs in Vietnam were a lack of funding and available space to bury the dead pigs.
In March, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization advised Vietnam to declare the ASF outbreak a national emergency.
Meantime, a fourth South African province has reported an ASF outbreak.
The affected areas in South Africa are quarantined and investigations are underway to trace the origin of the outbreaks and identify other farms that may be infected.