African Swine Fever (ASF) has been detected in a village in southern Serbia, the Belgrade-based Beta news agency reported on Wednesday.

The presence of the disease, which does not infect humans but is highly contagious among pig populations, was confirmed at a farm in the village of Orlja outside the southern Serbian town of Pirot.

In order to contain the outbreak, local authorities have set up a 3-kilometer-wide quarantine area around the village. The assistant mayor, Vidojko Panajotovic, said that a larger 10-kilometer area around Orlja – which includes some villages in the neighboring Bela Palanka municipality – has been designated under threat from the disease.

Regional animal health control official, Miroljub Marjanovic, told local television channel TV Pirot that the disease seemed to be spreading rapidly over the past week because farmers and hunters were not following the rules.

The disease is spread via bodily fluids of infected pigs, which may end up in uncooked food waste fed to other pigs. Infected pigs usually show signs of high fever, loss of appetite, and depression. In only a few days, infected pigs can fall into a coma and die.

The European Food Safety Agency declared Serbia a country with a high risk of ASF in 2020, and some cases had previously been detected in southern Serbia in October last year.