Bangkok [Thailand], January 12 (HornbillTV/ANI): Thailand said on Tuesday that it has detected African swine fever infection in a surface swab sample collected from a slaughterhouse in the central Nakhon Pathom province, the first presence of the animal disease in the country.

One sample tested positive for African swine fever out of 309 samples collected at pig farms and slaughterhouses, prompting the government to send experts there to trace the source of the animal disease and stop the virus from spreading, according to the Department of Livestock Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.

The Thai authorities will report the finding to the World Organization for Animal Health, local media cited Soravit Thaneeto, head of the department, as saying.

 The authorities will declare a 5-km epidemic outbreak zone where the sample was found and consider culling live pigs within the zone, according to the protocol to contain the animal disease.