News African swine fever
China: outbreak in largest pig province
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed an outbreak of African swine fever in Sichuan province. The province in southern China accounts for almost 10% of the total pig production in the country.
The animal disease was recently found on a small pig farm with 40 pigs. It is the first case of African swine fever in China's highest producing province. This also immediately means that African swine fever has now been detected in all major production regions.
About 700 million pigs are slaughtered in China every year, of which about 66 million come from Sichuan. Last week the province had another import ban on pigs and pig products, with which it wants to stop the spread of the animal disease.
Wild boars also infected
In Jillin province (near the border with North Korea), African swine fever has been found for the first time in a dead wild boar. This has increased the suspicion that the virus entered China via wild animals. On the other hand, there are also reports that the virus has entered the country through contaminated feed.
With a population of 33,5 million wild boars, this is a hard blow to the pig sector in China. The country has been battling the animal disease for 4 months now and the measures seem to be having an effect so far. Now that it is known that the virus has also been found in wild boars, the concerns among Chinese pig farmers are greater than before.
Tim Roetman
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