Japan wants to slaughter pigs preventively

The Ministry of Agriculture in Japan is currently investigating the possibility of allowing preventive pig slaughter as a measure to prevent an outbreak of African swine fever. The government will introduce a bill early next year.

Japan's ministry of agriculture has announced it is investigating whether preventive slaughter could be allowed as a measure against African swine fever. The Ministry of Agriculture is due to introduce a bill next year to revise the 'Combating Infectious Diseases in Pets Act'. Currently, this law only allows preventive slaughter in the event of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

The preventive culling of pigs, according to the Japanese government, mainly relates to pig farms located a few kilometers from an outbreak. At the moment, the country is only dealing with outbreaks of classical swine fever† This measure should also ensure that the cabinet can impose more sanctions on companies that do not comply with the sanitary facilities.

Costs in China are rising
The cost of living in China surpasses the 10% target for the first time in 3 years. This is mainly due to the rising price of pork due to the outbreaks of African swine fever. Because about 40% of the Chinese pig population has disappeared, a chronic shortage of pork has arisen in China. As a result, prices have risen to record highs. "The producer price has increased by 125% since July," said Rupert Claxton of Girafood. This has also ensured that consumer inflation has risen sharply.

The animal disease has spread surprisingly quickly in Asia. This is partly due to local buying habits. For example, live pigs are regularly transported to the markets and butchers. Despite government plans to modernize China's pig industry, the industry is still dominated by 'backyard farmers' (small-scale, unregistered pig farms).

'Lift import bans'
The Philippines Ministry of Agriculture is urging local governments to lift import bans on live pigs and pork products. This is to prevent a pork shortage. The fact that there are considerably fewer pigs is also apparent from the demand for pig feed. In the past period, that demand has fallen by as much as 10% to 15%.

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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