African swine fever recovery in China

African swine fever (ASF) is the number one killer of swine on pig farms and has caused significant harm to pig farming in China since its spread. In this study, we designed a variety of physicochemical factors to explore the biological characteristics of ASF, so as to guide farms to develop disinfection measures.

Since its emergence in 2007, the Georgian strain of African swine fever virus (ASFV) has spread widely in Eurasia, entering the European Union in 2014 and China and Vietnam in 2018, causing devastating disease outbreaks (Chenais et al., 2019; Dixon, Stahl, Jori, Vial, & Pfeiffer, 2020; Li & Tian, 2018). Between 2016 and 2019, 48 countries reported ASF outbreaks, with over 10,000 separate farm incidents, involving over 2.5 million infected pigs (OIE, 2019a). The high case fatality rate and tenacious nature of the Georgian 2007 ASF strain has led to unprecedented losses in many affected areas of the pig industry. Veterinary authorities in many affected countries have adopted “stamping‐out” tactics of complete destocking of infected premises and detailed tracing/testing of potentially‐infected contacts. However, these important activities are difficult to conduct in highly complex pig/pork production systems, such as those in Vietnam and China.

Until 2017, the Chinese pig industry had been modernizing and expanding, with an estimated annual output of c. 700 million market pigs. However, from August 2018 to May 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) listed 170 ASF outbreaks across 32 provinces in China, with estimates of at least 1.2 million sick and culled pigs. The Ministry figures also estimated a reduction in the national population of breeding females of more than 40%, mainly caused by environmental protection, hog cycle and ASFV. This reduction in national output and breeding pig/piglet replacement capability markedly damaged the operational status of many pig farms. Comparisons of pigs reported as marketed by larger corporate farm systems in China between January 2019 and 2020 confirm this marked reduction in output (see Table 1). The consequent drop in supply of available pork in the face of strong continual demand has led to steep rises in the value of marketed domestic pigs, from 12.2 RMB per kg (February 2019) to 36.1 RMB per kg in February 2020. The status of pig farming in China is therefore at an opportune time in terms of increasing capability and recovery in terms of pig production returns on investment.

Authors: Lang Gong, Runda Xu, Zengjie Wang, Qiwei Deng, Heng Wang, Guihong Zhang

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/