New strain of African swine fever in China may cause pork prices to rise

NTD reporters : Wang Jiayi, Lin Cenxin and Liu Fang / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/02/12/a103052990.html / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

Since December 2019, the Chinese Communist Party has released hundreds of thousands of tons of frozen pork to curb the surge in pig prices but this year, due to the "failed vaccine" developed by the Chinese Communist Party's laboratory, a new variant of the African swine fever virus strain has appeared, causing heavy losses to pig farmers and it is expected that pork prices will continue to be affected.

According to data from the General Administration of Customs of the Communist Party of China, the mainland imported 430,000 tons of pork last December, an increase of 30.3% from the previous month. Relevant departments stated that starting from December 17, a total of 240,000 tons of frozen pork from the central reserve has been released to the market 9 times. The supply increased, and the price of live pigs fell in early February, but mainland farmers are generally bullish about pork prices after the year.

Zhang Hua, a large-scale farmer in mainland China, said that the price drop of pork is a temporary phenomenon. On the one hand, the cost of corn and soybean meal feed rose, and the cost of pork per catty rose from 7 yuan to more than 9 yuan. Coupled with the comeback of "African swine fever", once the gene deletion vaccine of the domestic research institute was injected, the new virus strain flowed into the pig farm, causing the death of pigs and rising costs.

Mainland farmer Zhang Hua said, "When you didn’t know about the pig farm, it (mutated virus) had already entered. After a large area of ​​infection, there have been large areas of dead pigs. Its mortality rate is relatively low, 20% to 30%. But the cost of your pig will rise to 14-15 yuan. After you have been infected with the vaccine, the entire farm cannot be cleaned up at a fixed point. It looks half-dead. After six months, the farm will be closed. Overturn and start over."

Zhang Hua mentioned that African swine fever is currently raging in the north, and the areas of Guangdong and Guangxi in the south have also begun to appear. New strain of the virus is mainly in the south.

Zhang Hua said, "It was the research institutes under our government who sent the seedlings out. Who will hold him in the end? According to internal sources, 20% to 30% of the disease in China now have genetic deletions detected. The outbreak of the vaccine virus, especially in the southern region, south of the Yangtze River, is very common. After the resumption of the market, whether the price of pigs can come down is a very long way to go. Will the price of pigs be comparable in 2021? 2020 is low and it is still unknown."

Mainland media reported that the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences had developed a vaccine with missing MGF360 and CD2v genes in 2019. Experts worry that vaccines may cause accidental infections, and new strains may spread globally through contaminated pork products.