The United States, Canada and Mexico are using to prevent swine fever from reaching the region

ARLINGTON, Va. (Reuters) – The United States, Canada and Mexico are coordinating efforts to prevent the arrival of a highly contagious swine disease that has swept swine herds from China and parts of Europe. said the US Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue.

The disease, African swine fever, can kill pigs in just two days. China, home to the largest herd of pigs in the world, has reported more than 100 cases of the disease in 27 provinces and regions since last August. Efforts to contain the fever have disrupted supplies of Chinese pork.

The virus has spread to Vietnam, a country neighboring China. Eastern Europe suffered an epidemic and Belgium discovered the virus in wild boar. If it were to reach the United States, swine fever could curb shipments in the US $ 6.5 billion US pork export market, at a time when the industry is already under control. shock of trade disputes with China and Mexico.

"Sharing the long borders that we establish north and south, it's important to work together," said Perdue at the US Department of Agriculture's annual Prospects Forum, where he shared a scene with the United States. Canadian Minister of Agriculture, Lawrence MacAulay, and the Mexican Minister. Secretary of Agriculture, Victor Villalobos Arambula.

"Everything that happens in a very mobile world today will only increase the chances of transfer from one country to another," said Perdue.

"We are going further, based on the latest African swine fever, to improve our game."

MacAulay said Canada has taken action, including increasing fines for people illegally caught importing meat.

"This sort of thing is vitally important because it takes one case to cost us billions of dollars," MacAulay said. "I hope we can solve this problem not after, but before."

Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer and a division of the WH Chinese group, has tightened safety procedures on US farms, while US hog producers are stocking animal feed ingredients imported from China to prevent the disease.

Although it is not harmful to humans, there is no vaccine against the disease and transmission can occur in many ways, including through direct contact between animals, through Contaminated food and by people infected with the virus moving from one place to another.

The announcement of the spread of the disease in Asia has sometimes led to the future evolution of the lean hogs of the CME group, while traders were considering the potential for improving pork exports from the United States to China .

USDA Chief Economist Robert Johansson said the prospects for US pork producers to export more to Asia to compensate for pork slaughtered because of the disease may be overestimated.

Johansson said that an abundant supply in the United States would lower pork prices by 7.5% in 2019.

"Producers in the United States are very efficient at producing hogs, and they produce a lot now," he said.