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 The disease, which has hit the world's top pork producer China hard,
originated in Africa before spreading to Europe and Asia. It has
been found in 50 countries, killing hundreds of million pigs, while
reshaping global meat and feed markets.
"We are really facing a threat that is global," OIE Director General
Monique Eloit told Reuters in an interview.
"The risk exists for all countries, whether they are geographically
close or geographically distant because there is a multitude of
potential sources of contamination."
African swine fever, which is not harmful to humans, can be
transmitted by a tourist bringing back a ham or sausage sandwich
from a contaminated country, throwing it away and the garbage being
reused by farmers to feed their pigs, Eloit said.
There are additional risks from trading live animals and food
products across borders and from small breeders using restaurant or
train station waste to feed their stock.
The disease has spread rapidly to several countries in Southeast
Asia including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Korea and the Philippines
and more countries are likely to be hit in the coming months.
"In the short term we are not going towards an improvement. We will
continue to have more outbreaks in the infected countries.
Neighbouring countries are at high risk and for some the question is
when they will be infected," Eloit said, stressing that controls
were difficult to implement.
The spread of African swine fever has not only ravaged the Asian pig
population, but also sent international pork prices rocketing and
hit animal feed markets such as corn and soybeans.
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It has also weighed on results of agricultural commodity groups due
to weaker feed demand for hog breeding.
China's hog herd was more than 40% smaller in September than a year
earlier, its farm ministry said earlier this month. But several in
the industry believe the losses are much greater.
Beijing issued a series of policies in September aimed at supporting
national hog production and securing meat supplies.
Eloit said the measures were adequate but needed to be fully
implemented.
"There is a difference between what is decided on paper - I do not
think there is any concern here - and how we actually get to apply
them on the ground especially in countries that are very large,
which have a wide variety of production," she said
In Europe, the situation is different because outbreaks mainly
concern wild boars, Eloit added.
African swine fever has been found on farms in eastern Europe but
its spread had been mostly contained, due mainly to tight security
measures implemented in some countries.
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Veronica Brown and
Mark Potter)
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