RPT-No country immune to risk of African swine fever spreading - OIE

(Repeats OCT 30 story. No change to text.)
* Disease has spread to 50 countries, decimating herds
* China hit hardest as the world's largest pork producer
* OIE chief sees virus spreading further in Asia within
months

By Sybille de La Hamaide
PARIS, Oct 31 (Reuters) - African swine fever will spread
further across Asia where it has devastated herds, and no
country is immune from being hit by the deadly animal virus, the
head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on
Wednesday.
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.
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.