The announcement wasmade by the department on September 20, less than two weeks after it declared the first outbreak of the disease in the Philippines.

The Philippine Bureau of Animal Industry has found the African swine fevervirus in blood samples from two areas in Quezon city, a part of Metro Manila,said the agriculture department’s spokesman, Noel Reyes.

Thereare also other areas being monitored by the agriculture department, Reyes added.

Mayor of Quezoncity Joy Belmonte said the virus was possibly transmitted from dead pigs foundfloating in creeks and a nearby river.

ThePhilippines, the world’s 10th-largest pork consumer and seventh-biggest porkimporter, declared its first outbreak of the virus on September 9, after detecting swinedeaths and culling more than 7,000 pigs in towns in Rizal province, east ofManila.

It is thelatest country in Asia to be affected by the African swine fever. The disease has taken its toll across Asian countries, including China, Cambodia, the DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Laos, Mongolia, and Vietnam.

In early August, the Philippines banned pork and pork-based products from morethan a dozen of countries worldwide which were hit by the virus.

The virus is not harmful to humans but causes haemorrhagic fever in pigs thatalmost always ends in death. There is no antidote or vaccine, and the onlymethod to prevent the disease from spreading is a mass cull of affectedlivestock./.VNA