PHNOM PENH, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has imported up to 1,500 pigs from Thailand a day, as a ban on pig imports from Vietnam is still in place due to African swine fever outbreak, an animal health chief has said.

"Currently, we don't import pigs from Vietnam because we worry that they will carry the disease to other provinces (of Cambodia), so we take pigs from Thailand, where there is no outbreak of the disease," said Tan Phannara, director general of the General Directorate of Animal Health and Production, on Monday.

"We need to import between 1,000 and 1,500 pigs (a day)," he said, adding that a kilogram of live pig costs 11,000 riel (2.75 U.S. dollars).

According to the official, between 4,000 and 5,000 pigs are consumed every day in Cambodia.

Cambodia ordered a ban on the imports of pigs from Vietnam since March, and in early April, the country reported its first outbreak of African swine fever in backyard pigs in Ratanakkiri province's O'Yadav and O'Chum districts that border Vietnam.

However, the virus has not spread to other areas.