Taiwan has halted pork shipments from the outlying county of Kinmen after a diseased pig washed ashore, a setback for local pork producers but a precaution meant to protect the island's herds.

• A dead pig found on a Kinmen beach tested positive for African swine fever, a disease deadly to pigs but harmless to people.
• Kinmen and the agriculture ministry suspended shipments of pork and processed pork products to Taiwan proper and other islands through the end of August.
• Farms within a 10-kilometer radius were checked and all pigs there were healthy; live pigs from Kinmen were already banned from shipping.
• Infected carcasses keep drifting ashore on ocean currents, and this is the third such case this year and the 23rd since 2018.
• Officials fear the Mid-Autumn Festival gift season, when people mail pork mooncakes and cured meats from China, could bring the disease in; fines run into the hundreds of thousands of Taiwan dollars.

Outlook: The shipping ban stays until Kinmen goes a full week with no new cases, and border checks will tighten ahead of the September holiday.