Nakhon Ratchasima taking preventive measures against dreaded swine flu

Full-scale preventive measures against swine flu have been put in place in Nakhon Ratchasima province to pre-emptively cope with a possible outbreak, the provincial livestock office chief said on Monday.

The so-called African swine flu could kill almost 100 per cent of infected pigs, he said, adding that there were more than 440,000 pigs in the province, which ranks among the country’s top ten.

This northeastern province has 6,627 pig breeders, 6,600 of whom are independent or small time, while the remaining are large farms.

Most of 4,000 pigs butchered each day are sold outside the province, said Potsawee Somjai.

He added that he learned of the Department of Livestock Development ordering branch offices in border provinces to strictly inspect pigs killed or imported.

Channel News Asia reported that Vietnam has culled about 4.7 million pigs to contain an outbreak of African swine fever that has spread to all 63 provinces of the Southeast Asian country.

China-based CGTN recently reported from the Cambodia-Vietnam border that several Asian countries are battling to contain the flu. The highly contagious disease has already led to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Cambodia, besides Vietnam.