A staff member cleans a pigsty at Jinchuan pig farm of Jiangxi Zhengbang breeding Co. Ltd. in Xingan County, east China's Jiangxi Province. Photo: Xinhua

Multiple Chinese localities have recently stepped up prevention measures against African swine fever, including expanding disinfection and monitoring at relevant facilities, according to official statements and media reports. 

While some reports suggested there has been a resurgence of the virus in recent months, there is no official information about such a surge as of Monday. And it is unclear what exactly prompted recent preventive steps taken by some localities.

At least a half dozen localities in provinces such as Northwest China's Gansu and Southwest China's Yunnan have taken preventive steps against the incurable and deadly disease for pigs, according to a report on thepaper.cn on Monday. 

On Thursday, relevant authorities in Zhuoni County in Gansu issued a notice that banned the transportation of pigs from areas outside the Northwestern region, except breeding pigs, piglets and African swine fever-free areas that have passed national assessment. Local hog farmers are also restricted from purchasing live pigs from outside the province. 

The notice warned that purchasing live pigs that have not passed inspection carry an extremely high risk of spreading animal diseases like African swine fever, which could lead to serious losses as an outbreak could mean the slaughter of all infected pigs.  

Two others counties in Gansu also issued same notices. 

Similarly, a town in Luoping county in Yunnan also issued a notice on cracking down on illegal transportation of live pigs, calling for strengthened supervision and prevention of spreading risks during the transportation process to stabilize live pig supplies in the town. 

Other localities such as Laishan, East China's Shandong Province has stepped up inspections of African swine fever at slaughter houses and dispatched veterinarians to conduct onsite inspections of relevant measures against the disease. 

African swine fever is an incurable and deadly disease for pigs, which was first detected in China in March 2018 and has spread to most parts of China, causing severe impact on hog farms and output and prices of pork, a main stable meat in China. But it has since been effectively contained in recent years. 

Last month, there were some reports suggesting a resurgence of the virus in some places in China. For example, a Reuters report on March 15 claimed that "a surge in African swine fever infections in China is set to reduce hog output later this year."

Citing farm managers, the report added that infections started to surge after the Chinese New Year holidays. The report also referred to a research note from analysts at Huachuang Securities, which claimed that "data from swine fever virus testing companies show that the number of positive detections exploded after the new year holiday. The order of magnitude in a single month has reached the level of the whole year of 2022."

The research note has sparked controversy, with some criticizing the analysis as being inaccurate. "Some people think that part of the data in the research report is subjective," according to a report from National Business Daily in mid-March. 

Also, there has been no official report of rising cases of African swine fever in recent days.