News African swine fever
China wants to develop vaccine against ASF
China wants to develop a vaccine against African swine fever. The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology announced this on Friday, January 18.
China will investigate how to treat the animal disease, which affects pig farming in the country since August infests, can eliminate. In addition, the country wants to look at the origin of the virus and how the disease spreads. Further details of the investigation have not yet been presented.
Waiting for a breakthrough
African swine fever has been researched worldwide since the 60s, but no one has yet succeeded in developing a working vaccine. According to Willy Loeffen, specialist in the field of African swine fever at Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, vaccines have been developed that partly work, but that have many side effects and cannot yet be used commercially.
In addition, Loeffen says that it is very difficult to say how long it may take before a working vaccine becomes available. "It's really waiting for the breakthrough to come."
Animal disease is on the rise
Meanwhile, the number of registered outbreaks in China has increased to more than 100. The Chinese government has also reported that 2 large-scale pig farmers are being punished for withholding an infection; 1 pig farmer had even sold his infected pigs to a slaughterhouse. The other pig farmer had not reported in time that African swine fever was present on the farm.
The animal disease has also been frequently reported in neighboring countries. For example, the virus was first found in Mongolia on January 10, and 1 week earlier it was found in Taiwan A case of African swine fever was also identified.
Canada is concerned
Concerns are now also being expressed in Canada about the spread of the virus, for example via ingredients for animal feed. Canada imports many ingredients from China because it contains amino acids that are not available or poorly available elsewhere.
Tim Roetman
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