Six countries have suspended their imports of pork from Belgium after several cases of African swine fever were detected in the country, the Belga news agency reported on Tuesday.

African swine fever is harmless to humans but deadly to pigs.

Farmers fear outbreaks, which can lead to financial losses and export restrictions. There is no vaccine or cure for the disease.

Five wild boar carcasses have tested positive for the virus in Belgium in recent days.

The outbreak is centred on the province of Luxembourg, in south-eastern Belgium.

As a result, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Belarus, Mexico and the Philippines have all halted pork imports from Belgium, Belga reported, citing the National Belgian Federation of slaughterhouses (FEBEV).

These countries had stipulated that pork-exporting nations must be free of African swine fever, said Michael Gore of FEBEV.

“There is, therefore, no room for negotiation; the imports are suspended,” he added.

China and South Korea represent around 45 per cent of Belgian pork exports outside the EU, according to Gore.

Up to two-thirds of Belgian pork is destined for export, according to the agriculture federation of Wallonia, the region where the outbreak has occurred.

Belgian exports account for 2-5 per cent of overall EU production, the federation said.

The agriculture minister in the western German state of Saarland, Reinhold Jost, described the situation as “serious, very serious.’’

The disease had spread “considerably quicker than we had imagined to date,’’ Jost said, speaking in the state capital of Saarbruecken.

It was no longer a matter of ‘if,’ but rather “when and under what circumstances’’ the first dead animal is found in Germany, he said.

Saarland does not share a border with Belgium, as Luxembourg intervenes, but it is just 60 kilometres away. (Dpa/NAN)

– Sept. 18, 2018 @ 17:25 GMT |