China Identifies Mystery Pig Illness
Pastor Dale Morgan
China Identifies Mystery Pig Illness*
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 9, 2007; 1:02 PM
BEIJING -- A mysterious illness that has swept through pig populations
in southern China and killing at least 300 of the animals has been
identified as a strain of "blue ear disease," state media said Wednesday.
The official Xinhua News Agency said that an effective vaccine has
already been developed and authorities soon will start to administer it
to pigs in Guangdong province.
The disease spread to China in the mid-1990s, and the recent outbreak
was a caused by a new mutation, it said.
Blue ear disease is also known as porcine reproductive and respiratory
syndrome or PRRS, and was first identified in the United States in 1987,
according to the World Organization for Animal Health.
The pigs in Guangdong showed symptoms typical of the disease, including
loss of appetite, fever and bleeding, Xinhua said.
The affected pigs were all raised by individual households instead of
large-scale farms and were not for export, it said.
Hong Kong media said Monday that 1,300 pigs were believed to have been
infected.