News African swine fever
Indonesia confirms African swine fever
About 1 month ago, about 4.000 dead pigs were found in Indonesia. The country's agriculture ministry has now confirmed that the animals have died of African swine fever. In addition, Rabobank reports that the pig herd in Asian countries will continue to be affected by the animal disease in 2020.
In the province of North Sumatra in Indonesia, mid-November 4.000 dead pigs found. Several sources then reported that it was an outbreak of African swine fever, but the ministry declined to confirm. After all, research had to be done first. The results of that investigation were published last week and it appears that these animals have indeed died from the virus. Indonesia is thus the umpteenth country in Asia experiencing an outbreak of African swine fever.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has since contacted the authorities in Indonesia. The FAO will make several recommendations to the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture to contain and eradicate the virus. Plans for this will be announced in the coming weeks.
Consequences for 2020
A new analysis by Rabobank shows that the outbreak does not only affect the current year. This bank shows that the pig population in Asian countries will still be affected by the outbreak in 2020. For example, the pig herd in Vietnam is expected to fall by another 2020% in 8, after a 20% decline this year. In addition, pork consumption in the country is expected to fall by 2020% by 6 to 24 kilograms. In 2019, a decrease of 17% to 25 kilos is expected.
Rabobank also expects the Philippines' pig herd to fall by 2020% in 13, as a result of the outbreak this year. This is expected to result in an 8% drop in pork production, bringing it to 1,5 million tons. Although the pace of the spread in the Philippines has slowed down, the bank expects the virus to spread beyond the Luzon region in due course.
Read all about African swine fever here.
Kimberly Baker
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