China denies pig disease cover-up amid new outbreaks

BEIJING, Aug 21 (Reuters) China today dismissed accusations it covered up recent pig disease outbreaks as another 92,000 pigs were infected and 23,000 killed over the past month.

The disease, coupled with rising feed costs, discouraged farmers from raising pigs last year and pushed pork prices -- nearly double in many places -- to multiyear highs in recent months, helping to drive up inflation.

Some Chinese newspapers have argued that the price hikes might have been avoided or lessened if there had been a smoother flow of information about blue ear disease, while overseas media have criticised local officials for covering up outbreaks.

The Ministry of Agriculture defended itself on Tuesday, saying it had told the World Organisation for Animal Health and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation of outbreaks since September 2006.

''Our government has always been open and transparent in handling the highly pathogenic animal epidemics such as the blue ear disease,'' said Jia Youling, head of the ministry's veterinary department.

Efforts were also made to educate the public and farmers about the disease, which could not spread to humans, Jia was quoted as saying in a statement posted on the ministry Web site (www.agri.gov.cn).

''The ministry's measures made some people feel sad because they failed to find any sensational material,'' Jia said.

The disease, formally known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, had infected 257,000 pigs in 26 Chinese provinces this year, Xinhua news agency said.

Some 68,000 pigs had died of the disease and 175,000 were culled, Xinhua said, adding more than 100 million hogs had been vaccinated.

Jia said in June that about a million pigs, or 0.2 percent of China's pig population of 500 million, were killed by ''high fever disease'', later identified as blue ear disease, in 2006.

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