BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Lianyungang city said local authorities have culled 14,577 hogs due to African swine fever as of Aug. 20, after the nation’s third outbreak of the disease was confirmed there last weekend.

The local government has sterilized all roads and farms in the infected area, Lianyungang city said in a statement posted on its official Weibo account on Wednesday.

Local authorities had also inspected all pig farms, slaughterhouses and trading markets in the city, but hadn’t found any other suspected cases as of Tuesday, the statement said.

More than 8,000 hogs have been culled in Liaoning province after an outbreak was confirmed there earlier this month, while a unit of WH Group, the world’s top pork producer, said it culled 1,362 pigs at a slaughterhouse where China’s second outbreak was discovered last week.

(Reporting by Hallie Gu and Josephine Mason; editing by Richard Pullin)

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