HANOI, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) has recently stricken Vietnam's northern Thanh Hoa province and central Quang Nam province, raising the total affected localities in the country to three.

    The disease has broken out in a district of Quang Nam, and hit 3,000 pigs in four districts of Thanh Hoa, local newspaper Young People on Friday quoted the provincial veterinary agencies as reporting.

    However, the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has yet to confirm the outbreak in Thanh Hoa.

    PRRS has hit pigs in the two central provinces of Ha Tinh and Quang Nam, it said.

    PRRS was first recognized in the United States in the mid-1980sand is now present in most pig producing countries. The symptoms include reproductive failure, pneumonia and increased susceptibility to secondary bacterial infection.