China has culled a total of 25,000 pigs in its attempt to prevent the deadly African swine fever from spreading further across the country and developing into a worldwide epidemic.
The outbreak is causing panic among local farmers because there is no vaccine currently available to terminate the virus. Aside from market vulnerability, scientists are also worried that the epidemic in China could spread across the world as the country is the largest pig exporters on a global scale. The international market has a voracious demand for pig supplies coming from Beijing.
The latest culling took place in China's Zhejiang province where 1,332 pigs were deliberately killed after the African swine fever virus was reported in the city of Yueqing. As part of containment, authorities sealed off an area within 3 kilometers from where the contaminated pig farms where located.
Authorities initially thought that the outbreak will be contained when the number of culled pigs reached 20,000 on Aug. 22 from 15,000 on Aug. 20. The outbreak of the fatal pig virus in Wenzhou was first confirmed on Aug. 17.
The outbreak happens as China is recovering from four-year lows in national hog prices. On Wednesday, prices struck a three-week low at $1.99 per kilo, declining by 7.2 percent year-on-year according to Reuters, citing China-America Commodity Data Analytics.
Yao Guiling, an analyst with China-America Commodity Data Analyst, said demand for live pigs from resellers has drastically declined while demand from consumers remains unstable. The analyst said pig farmers preferred killing even the healthy pigs and selling them as meat in fear of a full-blown contamination. If this reaction lasts for the next couple of months, then pig prices will continue to drag on.
Chinese health authorities and trade officials assured everyone that the situation is currently under control.
Scientists, however, are singing a completely different tune. The Swine Health Information Center in the United States explained that the virus which brings the African swine fever is resilient. Even if infected pigs were removed from the pens, the virus can survive in the pens for the next 30 days to claim its next victims.
The virus can thrive in pork products and dried hams for four months. Worst, it can thrive forever in frozen infected pig carcasses.
Another thing terrifying about the virus is that experts cannot trace how it moves from one country to another. The virus might have been passed on during pig trading, through semen transfer, or even through pork products.
The strain now spreading in China is closely similar to the strain that is now prevalent in Russia according to Science Magazine, citing an Aug. 13 study published by scientists from the Institute of Military Veterinary Medicine in Changchun. The scientists concluded in their study that the virus may have been transmitted from imported pork products. It may have even transferred from pigs to pigs through contaminated feeds.
With regard to China, the scientists were concerned because of the complicated supply chains in the country. They noted that the country's pig growers range from the small backyard farmers to large swine facilities. The market structure would make it harder for the authorities to pin down the actual source of the virus. It would also make it more difficult for them to design an effective response measure to kill the virus.
Now, the ultimate concern, according to animal epidemiologist Francois Roger, is that if it did not get contained in China - the largest pig supplier globally - African swine fever could, therefore, spread to the rest of the world.
