#13,617
In a lengthy statement today on China's Ministry of Agriculture's website, the feeding of kitchen scraps to pigs, and the long-range transport of pigs, have been cited as key factors in the spread of African Swine Fever in China.
Once-common hog feeding practices - including the use of swill (food scraps), or any product of mammalian origin - are banned in most countries, due to their potential for spreading diseases like ASF, Classical Swine Fever, and FMD.Some pig farmers, particularly in very rural areas, ignore these rules, or - as described in a cautionary article yesterday from the UK (see Disease warning: How a ham sandwich could devastate East Anglia’s pig industry) - breech basic biosecurity practices.
In China, the use of `cooked' or `heat sterilized' swill has long been tolerated - particularly in the more rural areas - despite concerns over how consistently sterilization is completed.Five weeks ago China's MOA Issued New Regulations On Pig Feed To Curb ASF Spread, prohibiting the feeding of swill to pigs in any of the affected provinces, and surrounding regions. Pig feed manufacturers were also ordered to suspend the use of pig blood to produce pig feed.
Given the history of adulterated human food products in China, it wasn't surprising to see provisions for commercial pig feed manufacturers to submit samples to the government for testing, and that their use be suspended by farmers until these results are released.In today's announcement, the feeding of kitchen scraps to pigs was cited by the MOA as the cause of 62% of the first 21 outbreaks which began in early August in Northeastern China, and stated the virus was detected in kitchen scarps in Inner Mongolia. How the virus entered the country has not been determined.
Long-range transport of pigs is being blamed as the cause of the rapid geographic expansion of the disease, which has recently arrived in two southern provinces (Yunnan & Hunan).The full statement (in Chinese) - written in a Q&A format - is available at the link below. I've provided some machine translations of a couple of excerpts.
Resilience and prevention and control responsibilities, strengthen the implementation of measures, and do not relax the prevention and control of African piglets
(Excerpt)
Q: Why did the Notice propose to completely ban the cooking of kitchen waste to feed pigs?
A: The practice of prevention and control of African swine fever in the world for many years shows that the feeding of pigs to the pigs is an important way to spread pigs in Africa. Some foreign experts analyzed 219 African swine fever cases identified in 2008-2012, and found that 45.6% of the epidemic was caused by feeding kitchen waste.
After the occurrence of the African swine fever epidemic in China, experts conducted a preliminary analysis of the causes of the epidemic. Studies have shown that 62% of the first 21 African swine fever epidemics in China are related to feeding kitchen waste. These epidemics are mostly distributed in the urban-rural fringe, which tends to occur in multiple points, which is particularly evident in several epidemics in early September in Anhui Province.
We also detected African swine fever virus nucleic acid positive in the kitchen waste of pigs fed to a pig farm in Inner Mongolia. After the provinces that demanded outbreaks and the neighboring provinces in the country completely banned the consumption of kitchen waste to feed the pigs, the resulting epidemic has been greatly reduced, which fully demonstrates the importance of completely prohibiting the feeding of pig residues to the pigs.
The "Notice" proposes to completely ban the cooking of kitchen waste to feed pigs. It is a reference to international experience and a summary of prevention and control practices in the previous stage of China.
Question: Why does the Notice stress the need to improve the long-distance transportation regulation measures for live animals and poultry?
A: The "Notice" proposes to improve the supervision measures for long-distance transportation of live livestock and poultry, and actually emphasize the supervision of transportation, encourage cold chain transportation of livestock and poultry products, chilled fresh-listed, and transport live pigs and other live animals and poultry vehicles no longer enjoy the transportation of fresh agricultural products."
Green channel policy. On the one hand, restricting the long-distance transportation of live animals and poultry is an important means to prevent the spread of animal diseases. Studies have shown that long-distance transportation of live animals and poultry is an important cause of animal epidemics. Although the proportion of long-distance transportation represented by inter-provincial transportation is not high, it has a great impact. According to statistics, 70% of animal epidemics in China are caused by inter-provincial transportation.
Judging from the epidemic situation of controlling small ruminant plague and poultry H7N9 flu in recent years, adopting the restriction and transportation policy can effectively reduce the risk of animal disease transmission. In addition, foreign studies have also shown that nearly half of the African pig plagues are caused by the transmission of live pigs.
On the other hand, the adjusted “green channel” policy for fresh agricultural products transportation can promote the market to move from live animals to meat. This time, the state has adjusted the “green channel” policy for the transportation of fresh agricultural products. It is clear that transporting live pigs and other live animals and poultry vehicles no longer enjoys the “green channel” policy of fresh agricultural products transportation, while transporting fresh and frozen livestock and poultry meat.
Vehicles for animal products can continue to enjoy the original “green channel” policy. Especially in the context of the current low utilization rate of production capacity of pig slaughtering enterprises in China, by improving the utilization rate of slaughtering capacity of pigs, slaughtering on the spot, encouraging cold chain transportation of livestock and poultry products, and chilling and listing, it can effectively solve livestock and poultry in different regions. Product supply issues.
China is not only the world's largest producer of pork, it is the world's largest consumer as well. Getting control of this epidemic is not only an economic priority for China - in a world with increasing food insecurity - it has national security implications as well.
