China MOA: ASF Reaches Hebei Province, Returns To Inner Mongolia

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For the better part of a week there have been reports in the dissident Chinese press of a large African Swine Fever outbreak in Hebei Province - the only region of Eastern China not to have reported ASF - and of a massive cover-up.

Today, China's MOA has confirmed Hebei Province's first outbreak, and has announced the return of ASF to Inner Mongolia for the first time in nearly 3 months.

It is worth noting that the Chinese media reports (based, in part, on social media posts) suggest a substantially higher number of pigs affected than does the official report below.

African swine fever epidemic in Xushui District, Baoding City, Hebei Province

Date: 2019-02-24 12:54 Author: Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Press Office

The Information Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs was released on February 24, and an African swine fever epidemic occurred in Xushui District, Baoding City, Hebei Province.

On February 24, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas received a report from the China Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center, which was diagnosed by the China Center for Animal Health and Epidemiology, and an African swine fever occurred in a farm in Xushui District, Baoding City. There are 5,600 live pigs in the farm, and there have been morbid 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 according to the requirements, 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.

The African swine fever epidemic occurred in the Sandor Forest Farm of the State-owned Forest Management Bureau of Daxing'anling, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
 
Date: 2019-02-24 16:54 Author: Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Press Office 

The Information Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs was released on February 24, and the African swine fever epidemic occurred in the Sandor Forest Farm of the State-owned Forest Management Bureau of Daxing'anling, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

On February 24, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs received a report from the China Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center, which was diagnosed by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center. A wild pig swine outbreak occurred in a wild boar farmer in the Sandor Forest Farm of the Daxinganling Key State-owned Forest Management Bureau.

There are 222 domestic wild boars in the farm, with 222 diseases and 210 deaths. The farm is located in the hinterland of Daxing'anling, and there is no pig breeding in the radius of 60 km.

After the outbreak, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Forest and Grass Bureau immediately dispatched a steering group to the local area. The local government has initiated an emergency response mechanism in accordance with the requirements, and adopted measures such as blockade, culling, harmless treatment, and disinfection to strengthen the inspection of surrounding wild boar activities. At present, the above measures have been implemented.

A Google search on the term `死猪'' (`Dead Pigs') returns dozens of results each day, with many describing the dumping of large numbers of pig carcasses into rivers and streams (see Taiwan BAPHIQ: ASF Positive Pig Carcass Found On Matsu Island Beach).

Given the politics involved, not all of these reports may be credible, and there are a number of other serious pig diseases - including FMD, PED & PRRS - that could produce significant pig mortality. 

But there are ample reasons to suspect the official reports we get from the MOA may not fully describe the ASF situation on the ground. 

• Chinese farmers and local officials have a history of not reporting disease outbreaks to the central government - preferring instead to deal with problems internally - as not to invite unwanted attention from Beijing. 
• It seems unlikely that Hebei Province - which has been surrounded by provinces reporting ASF outbreaks for months - only now detects ASF.
• And perhaps most telling, Taiwan's BAPHIQ (Bureau of Animal Plant Health Inspection & Quarantine) continues to intercept ASF contaminated food products, with the latest reports showing 10% of Chinese pork products collected at their airport tested positive for the virus.

Obviously, significant quantities of ASF contaminated pork are making it into the food chain - and while that poses no health risk to humans - it does speak to the amount of undetected (or reported) infected livestock being processed.

Six months ago the FAO warned that AFrican swine fever (ASF) threatens to spread from China to other Asian countries, and over the past 7 weeks we've seen the virus attack farms in two of China's neighbors; Mongolia and Vietnam.

While ASF does not pose a direct threat to human health, it can be devastating to pork producers, and its further spread in China and across Asia could compromise already fragile food security in many regions

According to the FAO's most recent report, food insecurity and world hunger continue to increase, making agricultural diseases such as ASF, avian flu, FMD, and others important detriments to human health as well.

The 2018 State Of Food Security And Nutrition In The World

RECENT TRENDS IN HUNGER AND FOOD INSECURITY

KEY MESSAGES 

• New evidence continues to point to a rise in world hunger in recent years after a prolonged decline. An estimated 821 million people – approximately one out of every nine people in the world – are undernourished.
• Undernourishment and severe food insecurity appear to be increasing in almost all regions of Africa, as well as in South America, whereas the undernourishment situation is stable in most regions of Asia.
• The signs of increasing hunger and food insecurity are a warning that there is considerable work to be done to make sure we “leave no one behind” on the road towards a world with zero hunger.