More than 1m pigs have been culled across China since last August in an attempt to stop African swine fever from spreading further through the world’s largest producer and consumer of pork. The outbreak is devastating for a domestic industry worth some $128bn, and impacts a staple of China ‘s diet. Before the recent culls, the country was home to 400m pigs and pork is the most popular meat: 30.6kg was consumed per person in 2018, almost three times the amount of poultry eaten. The disease has now jumped to Vietnam, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Cambodia and North Korea , forcing countries to implement disinfection programs and more stringent checks at borders in a bid to halt it. Experts at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAQ) worry it could spread still further to Myanmar, the Philippines and Laos, making this one of the worst animal disease outbreaks on record.
More than 120 outbreaks of African swine fever have been reported in China, affecting every province, according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Last September, the FAQ held an emergency meeting of regulators and industry participants from nine Asian countries in Bangkok to develop a response and encourage greater cross-border and regional collaboration. Government fumbling may have contributed to the disease spreading so far, so fast. A poorly functioning compensation scheme is part of the problem. Beijing ordered herds to be culled and offered payments of Rmb1,200 ($174) a head for those who lost animals. But local governments balked at the high cost, leading many farmers to sell their animals quickly rather than report an outbreak.