BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Friday it had detected the African swine fever virus in pigs being illegally transported to southwestern Guizhou province.

A truck carrying 32 pigs from another province was stopped near the city of Duyun in Guizhou. One pig was already dead and another was sick, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on its website.

The report comes as African swine fever, usually fatal to pigs but not harmful to people, spreads through China’s southern provinces after ravaging herds in the north last year.

(Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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