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Since last year, China has been experiencing an increase in African swine fever, caused by the African swine fever virus, which spreads rapidly on farms, resulting in the death of most of their pigs. . According to a survey conducted by Reutersthe local governments responsible for controlling the situation and reporting the epidemics to the government often prefer to pretend that nothing has happened so as not to have to pay the repayments to the farmers, forced to break their pigs to avoid this the virus is spread further. The official estimates of the central government would therefore be far removed from reality and the risk of the spread of the epidemic in large areas of China is likely to become more and more concrete, which would have serious repercussions for the country. ;economy.
The African swine fever virus can not be cured: when it infects pigs, it causes fever and internal bleeding that, in 90% of cases, result in death of the animal. As drastic as it is, the only effective solution is to slaughter all animals on farms where cases of swine fever have been recorded, thus limiting the spread of the virus. In China, the law provides that, in addition to the pigs on the infected farm, all other pigs within 3 km will also be killed.
For each animal slaughtered, the breeders receive an allowance of 1,200 yuan (158 euros), paid by local governments. According to information collected by ReutersHowever, local administrators are reluctant to declare a new home, as they often can not afford to pay compensation to farms with thousands of hogs. The presence of African swine fever epidemics can only be confirmed and certified by provincial governments. Independent testing by companies is not allowed, has no legal value and therefore can not be used to claim compensation. In the investigation of Reuters cases of companies that have long struggled before the swine fever virus contamination in their farms are mentioned.
Sun Dawu, chairman of the Hebei Dawu company, said he had to wait weeks before an outbreak of African swine fever was detected in any of his farms. At the end of February, having not yet received satisfactory answers, Dawu published photos and documents about the Chinese social network Weibo, reporting on the situation and its suspicions regarding the epidemic.
Two days after their publication, the Ministry of Agriculture finally moved, almost 7 months after the first contacts established by the company with local authorities. Sun explained that 15,000 pigs had already died while waiting and that a thousand had been sold to other farms. His inability to make his own checks further complicated matters, leaving Sun to wait for government veterinary checks.
Reuters obtained documents and collected testimonials about other parts of China. In one case, the local authorities refused to perform the tests, so as not to have to badume the problem. In another case, the tests were performed but gave negative results, although pigs continued to die in the affected breeding and that a test conducted by the company, which had given positive results, was done in an informal way.
China alone consumes about half of all pork produced in the world. According to badysts' estimates, thanks to African swine fever, production in 2019 could be reduced by 30%. If this were the case, pork prices could increase significantly, while increasing imports to meet the country's strong demand. The economic repercussions for the sector and beyond would be heavy and have many consequences.
Despite the badysts' perspectives, the Chinese government is currently expressing some optimism about the situation, but according to data from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture itself, the number of pigs reared in February has fallen by 16% compared to the previous year.
African swine fever is not a danger to the health of the population. Epidemic data should always be reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), an intergovernmental organization that also includes China. Since August 2018, the Chinese government has reported 112 outbreaks in 28 provinces of China. The number of reported cases has subsequently decreased in early 2019 and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture says the situation is gradually improving.
Judging by the information gathered by Reuters and other reports, the situation seems to be less positive. The reports themselves often come from areas far apart from each other, whose geographical distribution is incompatible with the way in which the disease spreads. In addition, the virus is often present in food products exported from China to countries such as Japan and South Korea, where on-the-spot checks are made on imported foods.
Governments and local governments in China have invested a lot of money in recent years to promote good practices to prevent the spread of the virus and for infections to occur in the first place. The problem is that outbreaks occur both in small and large farms, where there are generally more hygienic precautions precisely to prevent the virus from spreading to tens of thousands of pigs.
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