MOA: Hainan - China's Last Province Reports ASF

#14,017


Although the special administrative districts of Hong Kong and Macau have been spared, in the little over eight months since China reported their first outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF), the ASF virus has now been detected in every province and autonomous region of China.

The last region to fall - the island of Hainan - is both the smallest, and southernmost, province of China.

The (translated) announcement came overnight from China's MOA, which identifies 4 outbreaks in two different cities.

Wanning City, Hainan Province, Danzhou and the occurrence of African swine fever outbreak 

Date: 2019-04-19 17:15 Author: Source: Agriculture and Rural Department of Public Information Office 
　　The Department of Agriculture Office of Rural 4 Yue 19 Ri released, Wanning City, Hainan Province, Danzhou and African swine fever outbreaks occur.

　　4 Yue 19 Ri , the Ministry of agriculture and rural areas to the control center reported Chinese animal epidemic prevention, the China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center confirmed , Danzhou Hainan Wanning City, two farmers and two farmers African swine fever outbreaks occur.

Up to now, Danzhou outbreak occurred two farmers pig herds were 302 head onset 28 head and died 28 Tou; Wanning City, two farmers were an outbreak of pig herds 419 head incidence of 49 head and died 49 headers.

　　After the outbreak, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural immediately sent a steering group to the local. Started as required by local emergency response mechanism, to take the blockade, culling measures to deal with harmless treatment, disinfection, culling of all pigs died and sound processing. At the same time, prohibiting all pigs and their products to bring up the blockade zone, prohibiting the transport of live pigs blockade zone. At present, these measures have been implemented.

The last FAO ASF update (Apr. 12th) summarized the officially recognized and reported ASF outbreaks in China:

China

Since the China Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) confirmed its first African swine fever (ASF) outbreak in Liaoning Province on 3 August 2018, 123 ASF outbreaks detected in 28 Provinces/Autonomous Region / Municipalities.

1,010,000 pigs have been culled in an effort to halt further spread.

There are good reasons to believe this is a serious under-reporting (see African Swine Fever In China: Epizootic or An EpicZootic?), although it isn't clear exactly where the reporting breaks down.

• Six weeks ago, in China MPS Announces Prosecution Of Crimes Related to African Swine Fever, China's Ministry of Public Security held a live press conference where they not only announced a renewed crackdown on ASF related criminal activity, they announced nearly 1000 arrests have been made in recent months.
• There appears to be a reluctance at the local level to acknowledge and report outbreaks to the MOA. For months we've seen rumors (Google search `死猪') and media reports (see Reuters report Piles of pigs: Swine fever outbreaks go unreported in rural China), indicating pigs are being quietly culled.
• Taiwan continues to report ASF-infected dead pigs (presumably illegally dumped into rivers on the Mainland) washing up on their beaches, and an increasing percentage of ASF-contaminated commercial pork products being confiscated from travelers from China (and recently, Vietnam).

All of which makes is impossible for us to know the depth and breadth of China's ASF problem, and I suspect their own MOA may be similarly hampered.

While ASF doesn't pose a direct threat to human health, it is devastating to pork producers, and its continued spread in China and across Asia could compromise already fragile food security in many regions.

A week ago we looked at a RaboResearch report that estimated between 150-200 million Chinese pigs have already been infected with ASF - more than all the pigs in Europe - and that China's pig production will drop 30% in 2019.

You'll find the full report at:

Rising African Swine Fever Losses to Lift All Protein Boats

Animal Protein
Grains & Oilseeds
Agri Commodity Markets April 2019

And as predicted by the FAO last August (see FAO: African swine fever (ASF) threatens to spread from China to other Asian countries), ASF has since turned up in Mongolia, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and other countries are anxiously preparing for its arrival.

Given the lack of success over the last decade in controlling this virus in Eastern Europe and Russia (see UK: DEFRA Update #20 On ASF In Central & Eastern Europe), the prospects for containing it in Asia are less than encouraging.