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Meanwhile China's African Swine Fever woes continue today with fresh outbreaks reported in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Beijing. Shaanxi Province reported their first outbreak two days ago, while the disease arrived in Beijing and Sichuan in the last half of November.
Hejiang County, Sichuan Province, Chang'an District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, Shunyi District, Beijing, China
Date: 2018-12-05 18:41 Author: Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Press Office
The Information Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs was released on December 5th. Hejiang County, Cangzhou City, Sichuan Province, Changan District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, and Shunyi District, Beijing Province, detected the African swine fever epidemic.
At 16:00 on December 5, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas received a report from the China Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center and was diagnosed by the China Center for Animal Health and Epidemiology (National Center for Animal Disease Research), a farmer in Hejiang County, Cangzhou City, Sichuan Province. A pig farm in Chang'an District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, and a pig farm in Shunyi District, Beijing, detected the African swine fever epidemic.
Up to now, the farmers in Hejiang County have 165 live pigs, with 68 diseases and 68 deaths. Changan District farmers have 245 pigs in the stock, with 85 heads and 64 deaths. There are 2,461 live pigs in the Shunyi District breeding farm, with 53 diseases and 26 deaths.
Immediately after the outbreak, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs sent a steering group to the local area. The local government has started the emergency response mechanism as required, and adopted measures such as blockade, culling, harmless treatment, disinfection, etc., to treat all the sick and culled pigs harmlessly. At the same time, all pigs and their products are prohibited from being transferred out of the blockade, and pigs are prohibited from being transported into the blockade. At present, the above measures have been implemented.
In just over 4 months roughly 90 outbreaks have been reported across China, in 21 of 34 provincial-level administrative units (i.e. provinces, municipal cities, Autonomous regions, & SARs).
While ASF does not pose a direct threat to human health, it can be devastating to pork producers, and China is both the largest consumer and producer of pork in the world.The continued uncontrolled spread of the virus could seriously disrupt China's economy and impact food security in an already stressed region of the world. And as China's leaders well know, a hungry population is an unpredictable population.
