Local governments in China should step up oversight of large-scale pig farms and breeding farms, China's vice agriculture minister said Oct. 17 as another province reported a new outbreak of the highly contagious African swine fever (ASF), according to Reuters.

China has reported almost 40 separate ASF outbreaks in 10 provinces and municipalities since the first case in early August, leading to the slaughter of almost 50,000 animals.

Vice agricultural minister Yu Kangzhen's comments, published on the website of China's Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Affairs, came after a 20,000-head pig farm in northeast Liaoning province reported an outbreak of the disease earlier this week, Reuters reported. It was the first large-scale farm to be hit by the deadly disease.

China has banned the transport of live hogs from provinces that have reported outbreaks of the disease as well as bordering provinces in an effort to control its rapid spread.

However, new cases are still being reported daily, with about a dozen uncovered in Liaoning province over the last week. On Oct. 17, another case was reported on a small farm in Liaoning's Panjin city and the northern province of Shanxi disclosed its first outbreak, Reuters said.

Yu visited Jinzhou city in Liaoning Oct. 16, according to the statement, to inspect the area's disease prevention efforts. On the same day, major feed and pig producer Dabeinong said it uncovered a suspected case of ASF on one of its affiliated farms there.

Reuters said the vice minister urged local governments to give more prominence to large farms. He also said authorities should crack down on false reporting of cases of the disease to gain compensation for culling. He did not provide details of how widespread such behavior is.

China also said it has banned the import of pigs and pig products from Moldova. It has already banned pork imports from Bulgaria, Japan and Belgium in response to disease outbreaks there.

While China continues to face new outbreaks of ASF and seeks to implement more controls on pig movement in affected areas, it also continues to ease certain restrictions at sites originally infected with ASF early in the country's outbreak, according to other Reuters reports.