China finds second African swine fever case at WH Group plant

[August 16, 2018]  BEIJING (Reuters) - China found its second case of African swine fever (ASF) on Thursday at a slaughterhouse owned by WH Group Ltd's listed Chinese unit, stirring concerns about the spread of the deadly infection across the world's largest pig herd.

Some 30 hogs died of the disease at the slaughterhouse in Zhengzhou in central Henan province, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement. The pigs had traveled thousands of kilometers from a farm in Jiamusi city in China's northeastern province of Heilongjiang, it said.

The ministry did not name the company, but China's largest pork processor Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development reported earlier on Thursday that it had discovered a suspected case of the disease, a director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau told Reuters.

Shuanghui is the Chinese unit of WH Group, the world's top pork producer.

Heilongjiang authorities were investigating whether the pigs were infected in the northeastern province bordering Russia. The provincial veterinary official said it wasn't clear where or how the pigs in Zhengzhou caught the disease.

"We have sent two batches of experts from the (Heilongjiang) province and central government to Tangyuan this morning, where the suspected outbreak was reported," the official said.

Tangyuan is a district of Jiamusi city.

Shuanghui has diverted orders from its Zhengzhou operations and is cooperating with the authorities to contain the disease, a staff member in the media relations department said.

The news comes almost two weeks after another northeastern province, Liaoning, culled thousands of pigs after the discovery of the nation's first case of African swine fever.

As a result of the first outbreak, Japan suspended imports of heat-treated Chinese pork and has tightened quarantine operations at airports and seaports.

The vast distance the pigs in Henan traveled - some 2,300 km (1,440 miles) southwest from Heilongjiang to central China - highlights the challenge for the government in controlling the highly contagious disease in the country's vast hog population.

Shares in Shuanghui sank 10 percent on Thursday amid concerns about the impact of the disease on sales. Other large hog farmers, Muyuan Foods Co and Guangdong Wens Foodstuff Group Co, were also sharply lower.

The disease is the latest blow to Chinese hog farmers, who have been struggling with a prolonged rout as years of frenzied investment to boost production have created oversupply, with output well beyond stagnating domestic demand.

ASF is one of the most devastating diseases to affect swine herds. It occurs among pigs and wild boars, transmitted by ticks and direct contact between animals, and its effects are often deadly. There is no vaccine.

The disease does not affect humans.

WH Group was not available for comment.

Shuanghui, headquartered in Luohe, Henan province, has 15 slaughterhouses, with a total annual capacity of 30 million hogs, and 23 production bases across China, spanning from Heilongjiang to the southern province Guangdong.

Shuanghui sells more than 3 million tonnes of pork a year.

(Reporting by Meng Meng, Hallie Gu and Josephine Mason; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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