BEIJING (Reuters) - China will take tough steps to wipe out African swine fever and will crack down on any behavior that delays or covers up cases of the disease from being reported, a senior official at the agricultural ministry said.

That came after the first case of the fever in Sichuan province, the country’s leading pig-herding region, was confirmed last Friday.

“(China) will need to improve hog-breeding management and animal biosafety management levels, as well as strengthening disease controls at pig farms,” Yu Kangzhen, a vice agriculture minister, said on Monday.

Yu also urged local authorities to crack down on unsupervised animal slaughtering and to prevent meat from animals that had died from the disease from filtering into the market.