#13,767
While we've seen roughly 100 outbreaks of ASF across 23 provinces and/or territories of China since the 1st of August - many of those have occurred in small to medium pig herds - often numbering fewer than 500 head.
Over the past month, we've seen bigger pig herds being hit, including farms with:
- 8016 pigs, 24 diseases and 7 deaths in Shanxi
- 5776 head incidence of 35 head and died 11 headers in Fujian
- herds 6027, the incidence of 30, died nine in Guangdong
- 11,150 live pigs, 27 diseases, and 27 deaths in Fujian
African swine fever epidemic in Mingshui County, Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province
Date: 2019-01-02 09:23 Author: Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Press Office
The Information Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs was released on January 2, and an African swine fever epidemic occurred in Mingshui County, Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province.
On January 1, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs received a report from the China Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center and was diagnosed by the Heilongjiang Provincial Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center.
An African pig plague occurred in a farm in Mingshui County, Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province. Up to now, the farm has about 73,000 live pigs, 4686 diseases, and 3,766 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.
After months of ratcheting up restrictions on the sale and movement of pigs in ASF affected regions, less than a week ago China's MOA Relaxed Some Rules On Pig Transport Amid Ongoing ASF Epidemic, in an attempt to ensure the flow of food products to the market over what is arguably the most important holiday in China; the Lunar New Year.
Whether - in the face of large outbreaks like this - that this new policy can be maintained for another 5 weeks (and at what cost) - remains to be seen.There are also rumbles in the (primarily dissident) Chinese press (see here) of cover ups of outbreaks by local officials - and investigations being launched by the central government - both of which suggest the ASF epidemic may be both deeper and wider than has been officially reported in China.
