BEIJING, May 10 (Reuters) - China's Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday it would soon start to immunise pigs with a new vaccine in a bid to prevent the spread of blue ear pig disease.

An estimated 1 million pigs have died in an unusually widespread outbreak of the disease, more formally known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), that began last May in south Jiangxi Province.

An outbreak in Guangdong province last month captured domestic and international media attention. The disease, which causes stillbirths in pigs, fever, loss of appetite, diarrhoea and redness of the skin, is not communicable to humans.

The vaccination programme will begin in Guangdong, the ministry said on its Web site (www.agri.gov.cn). It is planned to "to stop the spread of disease in its heaviest areas".

Agriculture industry officials have told Reuters that previous vaccination attempts over the last year have proven unsuccessful, which they attributed to mutations in the virus.

Some farmers have attempted to treat pigs by injecting them with the blood of other pigs, they said.

"That's a very crude way to do vaccines. If you do it too early in the progression of the disease, all you will get is virus and no antibodies," said Bruce Akey, director of the diagnostic centre at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

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