Tracking meat and meat products from pigs infected with African swine fever is key to fight the spread of the highly viral disease as it can survive in processed food, the Deputy head of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday.
African swine fever (ASF) has spread rapidly in eastern Europe and China, the world's largest pork producer, where new cases are appearing every day and the disease is traveling vast distances.
"The scenario in China is very challenging because of the amount of spread that has already occurred and the significant degree of contamination of various meat products," Matthew Stone, deputy director general of the Paris-based OIE, told Reuters in an interview.