The African Swine Virus Rages Across China
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| David Nealis on the farm in Erdos, China. |
As we enter the 2019 Lunar
New Year of the Pig, the African Swine Virus is raging across China and now
spreading to other parts of Asia and Europe.
This incurable disease
that typically takes years to eradicate has reached at least 24 Chinese provinces and regions since the first reported
outbreak in August of 2018. It’s a common thought that the African Swine Virus was introduced to
China from Russia. The US –China Trade War has China scrambling to find
alternative sources of commodities to prove to the US that they do not need
them to help feed their 1.3 billion population, this has some conspiracy theorist
imaginations going wild.
On our yeoman farm in the Inner
Mongolia City of Erdos, we feared the rapid spread of the African Swine Virus,
as many of the large and small producers in the region started to contract the
virus so we decided to send our hogs to market earlier than normal to avoid the
chance of losing all of our stock to the virus. All that we kept were a few
mature females that we use for breeding and so far they have been spared from
contracting the virus.
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| Jane Yang on the farm in Erdos , Inner Mongolia China |
What is the African
Swine Virus?
The African swine fever virus (ASFV)
is the causative agent of African swine fever (ASF). The virus causes a haemorrhagic fever with high mortality
rates in pigs, but persistently infects its natural hosts, warthogs, bushpigs,
and soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros,
with no disease signs.
In attempts to reduce the
spread of the virus the Chinese Central Government has banned feeding kitchen/restaurant
waste to pigs which is a very popular practice in China, and restricted transportation
of live pigs and products from infected areas.
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| Hogs on the way to market in China. |
So far the virus hasn’t mutated to be able to affect humans but
it has affected the lives of many humans. Tens of thousands of
Chinese farmers are expected to abandon pig farming as weak demand and higher regulation
costs cut deep into their profits. It is estimated that will reduce production
in China by 20 per cent this year. The weak demand for pork is also affecting global commodity producers with downward
pressure on soybeans.This might not be considered
a negative affect by the Chinese Central Government which has been pushing for
larger factory farms were there can be more control.
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| David Nealis President of Ceres Ltd |
China’s pork industry is US$1
trillion market, not only is China the world’s largest producer of pork and also a net
importer of pork. In 2017 it is estimated that China slaughtered 700 million pigs. Yeoman farms producing fewer than 500 pigs for slaughter
each year are estimated to account for about 40 per cent of China’s output annually.
During
the Year of the Pig let’s hope that the Chinese and other affected regions of
the world get the African Swine Virus under control and while they are at it let’s
find an intelligent and fair solution to the US - China Trade War as well.
