BEIJING, Dec. 26 -- The Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday confirmed that goats in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have died of a plague called "peste des petits ruminants."

On Dec. 21, a farm reported that 176 goats had showed symptoms of the disease in Hami Prefecture and 34 of them had died. The country's exotic animal disease research center on Thursday confirmed the epidemic was peste des petits ruminants.

Local authorities have sealed off and sterilized the infected area, where 271 goats have been culled and safely disposed of to prevent the disease from spreading.

Peste des petits ruminants, also known as PPR, goat plague or ovine rinderpest, is a contagious disease mainly affecting goats and sheep. The virus causes fever, lesions, labored breathing and diarrhoea in infected animals.