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 Nearly 15,000 hogs have been culled in Lianyungang city in eastern
Jiangsu province as of Aug. 20, local authorities said, after the
third case of the highly contagious disease was found at the
weekend, the third in two weeks.
China's first reported outbreaks of ASF - a disease for which there
is no vaccine - have stoked concerns about its spread and potential
damage to demand for pork, a staple of the nation's diet.
National hog prices, which had been recovering from four-year lows
struck in May, hit a three-week low at 13.71 yuan ($1.99) a kilogram
on Wednesday and are down 7.2 percent year-on year, according to
consultancy China-America Commodity Data Analytics.
The price fall has added to financial pain for farmers who have been
left struggling after a rapid expansion of capacity led to
oversupply and sinking prices. At the same time, the U.S.-China
trade row has pushed up the cost of livestock feed.
"Everyone is panicking," said Xie Yingqiang, who has a farm just 40
km (25 miles) from the latest case in Lianyungang. "If your pigs get
it, there is nothing you can do."
Farmers have started to sell pigs for slaughter, worried that the
disease will hit their herds and that prices will fall further, said
Yao Guiling, analyst with China-America Commodity Data Analytics.
"Purchasing demand has dropped, and demand from end users remains
quite weak," said Yao. "Pig farmers panicked because of the
outbreaks and were more motivated to send their pigs to the
slaughterhouse, pushing down prices."
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. It does not affect humans.
DEFENSE MEASURES
With no vaccine available, nervous farmers have been taking their
own measures to protect herds, from ramping up sterilization of
pens, to adding nutrition and anti-virus drugs in feed, and curbing
the movement of pigs and staff in and out of farms.
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China is home to about 500 million pigs, with tens of thousands of
backyard and large-scale farms in the northern, central and southern
regions. It produces about half of the world's pork and is the top
consumer of the meat.
"The situation is very severe now and the whole industry is scared,"
said Zheng Peikun, another pig farmer in China's southwestern
Guizhou with over 20,000 pigs.
Zheng has added anti-virus medicine in his pig feed, in the hope
that it can help increase the hogs' immunity.
"It is like a war. Except this time you can only try and defend
against it," he said.
Xie, in Jiangsu, used to clean his pens once a month, but he is now
disinfecting them every three days.
Chinese authorities have sealed off areas where the three ASF
outbreaks were confirmed, and have banned movement of pigs and
products in and out of the infected regions.
They have also stepped up inspections of pigs being transported in
and out of the affected provinces, according to four farmers and two
analysts.
Some farmers called for a total ban of long-distance transportation
of live pigs.
"If it gets out of control, it will be a catastrophe to the whole
pig industry, " said Zheng.
($1 = 6.8740 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Hallie Gu and Josephine Mason; editing by Richard
Pullin)
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