BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s agriculture ministry said on Wednesday that African swine fever had been detected in three dead wild boars in northwestern Shaanxi province.

Nine wild boar samples submitted by the provincial forestry bureau were examined and three from Foping county, in the south of Shaanxi, tested positive for the disease, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement.

The ministry first reported that the highly contagious disease, which has decimated the world’s largest pig herd, was found in wild boar in China in November 2018.

(Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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