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 The investigations come after China's cabinet said earlier this
month there were deficiencies in the country's efforts to control
and prevent the disease, which has reached every province of the
country and is still spreading, almost a year after the first
outbreak.
China is the world's largest pork consumer and its massive hog herd
has been decimated by the disease. African swine fever kills almost
all pigs it infects but does not harm people. There is no vaccine or
cure.
But many outbreaks are not being reported, farmers have told
Reuters, with local officials in some provinces unwilling to verify
or report the disease.
Vice agriculture minister Yu Kangzhen said recently the ministry was
looking into reports of underreporting. He also said some places
lacked the people and money to prevent and control the disease.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement
online that it will evaluate the veterinary agencies from two sample
counties in the following provinces and regions: Hebei,
Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Henan, Anhui, Guangxi, Fujian, Sichuan,
Yunnan and Shaanxi.
One county must be a place where there has recently been an outbreak
of the disease, and it should be compared with another county,
ideally administered by the same city or in the same area, where the
disease has not occurred, it said.
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The evaluations will be completed by Oct. 31 and a report on the
findings will be submitted to the ministry by Dec. 31.
"This is what is needed. At a national level and even provincial
level the policies were okay, but there were shortcomings in the way
they were translated. And that's something that needs to be worked
out to stop this disease," said Dirk Pfeiffer, a professor of
veterinary epidemiology at the City University of Hong Kong.
He added however that it remained to be seen what the results of the
evaluations would be and whether there would be any measurable
impact on the disease in the short-term.
The ministry said earlier on Monday that the country's hog herd had
shrunk 25.8% in June from a year ago, with the number of sows down
26.7%.
Live hog prices have increased sharply since June and are pushing up
pork prices and consumer inflation.
(Reporting by Dominique Patton; editing by Christian Schmollinger
and David Evans)
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