China detects yet more cases of African swine flu amongst pigs

China’s Agriculture Ministry said it had again detected African swine flu in pigs. This time they were being transported to Sichuan, a province in the southwest of the country.  This is the most recent of a dozen such cases in the past two months.

China has been facing African swine flu since August 2018, and since then the disease has spread rapidly through the world’s largest pork producer, killing millions of pigs and causing meat prices to skyrocket. In the most recent incident, the virus was found in pigs in a truck stopped for inspection in Nanjiang County, near the city of Bazhong. The truck was carrying more than 100 animals and two were dead, the ministry said.

The cases reported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs had dropped to two a month at the end of last year, but 13 have been published on the portfolio’s website since March. All cases, except for a boar, arose in pigs that were being transported between provinces.  “It is easier for the government to have access to pig transport trucks than to rely on farmers’ willingness to report outbreaks,” said Dirk Pfeiffer, professor of veterinary epidemiology at Hong Kong City University.  Pfeiffer added that recent reports may not reveal much about the epidemiology of the disease, as the reported cases are probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Despite the Ministry of Agriculture’s figures on the outbreak pointing to far fewer infected animals, data from the folder itself showed that by September 2019 the herd had shrunk 41% year-over-year. Many in the industry believe it has decreased by up to 60%.  On April 20, China’s deputy agriculture minister, Yu Kangzhen, said the risk of African swine flu has risen considerably recently as farmers are rushing to replenish their herds and transfer young pigs to new breeding sites.

The disease in China has positively impacted Brazilian pork exports to the country, which have grown a lot in the last year compared to previous years. Chinese customs data shows that the country’s pork imports in March almost tripled in comparison with the same month last year. The largest global consumer of pork, it imported 391,000 tons in March, up from 127,200 tons in March 2019. According to figures from China’s General Customs Administration, pork shipments for the whole first quarter amounted to 951,000 tons, almost twice as much as in the same period last year.

Source: Reuters

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