Pyongyang acts to contain swine feverhome/News/World/Pyongyang acts to contain swine feverSEOUL: North Korea is taking emergency measures to prevent the spread of the highly contagious African swine fever, its state media said Wednesday, weeks after confirming an outbreak in the isolated country. Seoul has expressed concern over the possible spread of the disease across the border and repeatedly offered to assist with quarantine efforts, but said Pyongyang had yet to respond. “Emergency preventive efforts are actively underway all across the country to block the spread of the African swine fever,” it said. “If a highly contagious disease like the African swine fever spreads… it could lead to the culling of herds of farm animals.”African swine fever has devastated supply chains in China — the world’s largest consumer of pork — where authorities have ordered the culling of hundreds of thousands of pigs. Seoul believes Pyongyang raises some 2.6 million pigs across 14 state-run farms.

Source: Manila Times June 12, 2019 16:15 UTC