China on Monday said that it had confirmed a new outbreak of African swine fever in the Xinjiang region, as the highly contagious disease spreads through the world’s largest hog herd.
The outbreak in the northwestern autonomous region’s Yecheng County killed 39 animals on a farm of 341 pigs, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement on its Web site.
China has reported more than 110 cases of the incurable disease since it was first detected in the country in early August last year.
Photo: Reuters
The nation is the world’s biggest hog producer and top importer of soybeans.
In Vietnam, the virus has reached 23 provinces and cities, while about 10 percent of the herd in Mongolia has perished or been destroyed since January.
Thailand is keeping a close vigil after cases were reported in neighboring Cambodia.
Shrinking hog herds and heavy economic losses for farmers could scar the soybean business for years to come. An outbreak of influenza A virus subtype H5N1, commonly known as bird flu, in China’s northeast only adds to their plight.
Supply and demand for hogs is balanced short term, but supply is going to tighten and that is set to continue for a long time, the Shandong Province Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau said.
Farmers are selling pigs at a faster pace and not replenishing stocks, it said.
The country has more than 400 million pigs and pork is the principal source of dietary protein.
China’s soymeal demand might drop more than 5 percent to 66 million tonnes this year, the first contraction after 11 years of growth, China National Grain and Oils Information Center said.
The situation could worsen as the virus spreads to uninfected provinces in countries such as Vietnam, which has culled more than 73,000 infected pigs since the disease was first found in early February, newspaper Tien Phong reported, citing data from the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Health Department.
The Vietnamese government has announced preventive and control measures to protect a pig population that totals almost 30 million.
Some nations are on high alert.
Thailand stepped up surveillance after Taiwanese authorities reported finding pork products from Vietnam tainted with African swine fever, Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Department of Livestock Development Director-General Sorawit Thaneeto said.
The virus was also detected in Chinese pork products at airports from Japan to Australia, spurring country bans.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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