News animal disease
African swine fever now also in South China
Chinese authorities reported an outbreak of African swine fever in Yunnan province last weekend. This is located in southwestern China. Until now, the outbreaks have mainly been confined to northern and eastern China.
The animal disease has been diagnosed on 2 small farms in the city of Zhaotong, which is located in Yunnan province. In a radius of 3 kilometers around the companies, 7.000 pigs were culled as a preventive measure. Yunnan Province borders the countries of Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.
Zhaotong is more than 3.000 kilometers from the place where the first outbreak was established.
Important consumption region
Southern China is an important production region. A lot of pork is also consumed there. It is not yet known how the virus has spread. Traditionally, many live pigs are transported from the north to the south of China. However, due to previous outbreaks, there were several transport bans.
The news is expected to lead to rising pig prices. The Chinese pig sector is working towards a climax; Chinese New Year is celebrated on February 5. A lot of pork is eaten during this festival. Many pigs are therefore slaughtered in the preceding period.
More than 3 official outbreaks have been reported in more than 40 provinces in the past 11 months. About 200.000 pigs have been culled so far.
Wouter Job
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.
