China's Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday denied media reports that blue-ear pig disease was making a comeback in south China's Guangdong and Sichuan provinces, leading to pork price rises.

An official in charge of the Veterinary Bureau under the ministry said the situation on the Chinese mainland was "stable" as Chinese vaccines were proved to be "safe and effective". So far, no vaccinated pigs had contracted the disease.

The official said some media reports had blamed ineffective vaccination for spread of the disease in Huizhou of Guangdong Province and Sichuan Province, saying Sichuan was even compelled to deliver pigs from neighboring provinces to meet market demand.

"So far there has been no case of blue-ear pig disease reported in Sichuan," he said, adding the province shipped out 958,300 tons of pork in the first ten months, exceeding last year's total.

He admitted Guangdong detected three cases, but had kept the situation under control. In the last two months, none of the province's pig farms reported infections. Huizhou had no reported infections since the beginning of the year.

Thanks to the vaccine jointly developed by the Chinese Center for Animal Disease Control and Prevention and the China Institute of Veterinary Drug Control, the number of infected pigs had declined sharply since July. In December, only 466 pigs were confirmed to be infected in southwestern Guizhou Province and northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

In late October, police arrested the producers of fake vaccines that had allegedly caused an outbreak of the disease, also known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, in central Hubei Province, which led to losses of almost one million yuan ($133,690).

(Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2007)