Thailand, one of Asia’s top pork producers, is intensifying efforts to hold off a lethal pig virus that’s causing havoc as it spreads across the region.
African swine fever — a disease that kills nearly all the pigs it infects — has been spreading through Asia from China and Mongolia to Vietnam and Cambodia. Millions of pigs have been culled, creating a global protein shortage and saddling farmers and food businesses with billions of dollars in costs.
“We’re on red alert for the pig virus,” Anan Suwannarat, the permanent secretary in Thailand’s Agriculture Ministry, said in an interview. “We’re trying everything to prevent it from spreading to Thailand.”
