Beijing releases pig virus details

Publishing for the first time details of a disease that led to a sharp spike in the price of pork, the Ministry of Agriculture said an outbreak of blue-ear disease infected 45,000 pigs in May and killed 18,000, the Wall Street Journal reported. The outbreak has sent the price of pork, the main staple meat in China, soaring. Feed-industry officials say the disease has killed at least 1 million pigs since last year, but the government did not comment on how far the disease spread in that period, noting only that it had "caused heavy losses to the pig breeding industry." Soaring pork prices have put pressure on national inflation levels and prompted Premier Wen Jiabao to visit a farm and pledge that meat supplies will be made available to the poor.