China To Kill 1,300 Pigs After Disease Outbreak

China is culling over 1,300 pigs as authorities rush to control a fourth outbreak of African swine fever and try to trace the origins of the virus that first struck the world’s largest hog herd three weeks ago.

Authorities in the eastern province of Zhejiang said they would slaughter 1,332 hogs and seal off an area within 3 km (1.8 miles) from the pig farming community in the city of Yueqing, where the outbreak was discovered on Thursday.

The local government said in a statement that it had also banned the movement of animals that could be easily infected inside and outside the affected area, and closed some live hog trading markets and slaughterhouses following the outbreak.

The latest cull will bring the total number of pigs deliberately killed to prevent he spread of the highly contagious disease to over 25,000.