Swine fever adds to China's economic headaches

BEIJING (AP) — Reeling from rising feed costs in Beijing's tariff fight with U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese pig farmers face a new blow from an outbreak of African swine fever that has sent an economic shockwave through the countryside.

First detected in August, the disease has killed 1 million pigs, prompting authorities to restrict shipments of most of its 700 million swine, even though nearly all are still healthy. That has disrupted supplies of pork, China's staple meat, to big cities while prices collapsed in areas with an oversupply of pigs that farmers are barred from shipping to other provinces.

The disease adds to a swarm of challenges for Chinese leaders as they fight with Trump over Beijing's technology policy and try to shore up cooling growth in the world's second-largest economy.