Blue ear pig disease still lingers in 14 Chinese counties. China's chief veterinary officer said on Thursday that blue-ear pig disease, which is partly responsible for the current pork shortage, still lingers in 14 Chinese counties. Jia said since the beginning of 2007, the disease had plagued 286 Chinese counties and infected 280,000 pigs, of which more than 70,000 died. The ministry had administered 510 million milliliters of vaccines to immunize more than 200 million pigs, he said.

Virus Spreading Alarm and Pig Disease in China  The New York Times August 16, 2007 CHENGDU, China, Aug. 9 - A highly infectious swine virus is sweeping China’s pig population, driving up pork prices and creating fears of a global pandemic among domesticated pigs. In Gu Yi, a village in Sichuan Province, a veterinarian’s banner claims he can cure blue-ear disease, but the virus still spreads.
Animal virus experts say Chinese authorities are playing down the gravity and spread of the disease. So far, the mysterious virus - believed to cause an unusually deadly form of an infection known as blue-ear pig disease - has spread to 25 of this country’s 33 provinces and regions, prompting a pork shortage and the strongest inflation in China in a decade. More than that, China’s past lack of transparency - particularly over what became the SARS epidemic - has created global concern.