There is now a second case of African swine fever (ASF) in China, reported the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) on Thursday morning.
“It was found in a slaughterhouse where 30 pigs died of ASF. The slaughterhouse is located in the city of Zhengzhou in the Henan province,” SHIC reported. “The pigs came from Tangyuan district of the city of Jiamusi, in the Heilongjiang province, over 500 miles to northeast of the first reported herd, which was detected approximately two weeks ago.”
The distance between the two outbreaks indicates the disease is present in multiple locations in the country. And the fact that the slaughterhouse is owned by Shuanghui (part of the WH Group that also owns Smithfield Foods), raises concerns that the disease could potentially have traveled to other areas before ASF was confirmed.
“By road, the distance from the farm to the slaughterhouse is approximately 1,400 miles, travelling through areas with high pig density. The slaughterhouse is a large commercial facility, owned by Shuanghui, part of the WH Group, the world’s largest pork producer,” SHIC said in a news release (see map below).
“Government officials are moving quickly to try to isolate the disease,” said the SHIC news release. “The slaughterhouse has been closed with a no movement zone within a radius of approximately 6 miles and a zone of 2 miles for destroying all pigs.”
Farm Journal’s PORK reported earlier this week on an outbreak of ASF in Ghana, and has covered multiple occurrences of the disease across the globe.
U.S. pork industry leaders are growing anxious.
“Keeping trade-limiting foreign animal diseases (FAD) like ASF out of the United States is critical to pork producers, along with taking steps necessary to elevate the level of FAD preparedness in the industry,” Patrick Webb, DVM, told Farm Journal’s PORK. He serves as director of swine health programs for the National Pork Board.
“The Pork Checkoff has multiple educational resources available to pork producers to help address these topics,” Webb said.
The current ASF challenge outside Africa started in 2007 in Georgia, from there to the Russian Federation and eastern Europe, including EU countries in the Baltic States, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic. Latvia and Romania are facing now several ASF outbreaks, and its rapid spread in wild boars and commercial herds.
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a serious, highly contagious, viral disease, notes the Center for Food Security and Public Health. It can spread rapidly in pig populations by direct or indirect contact, and can persist for long periods in uncooked pig products, facilitating its introduction into new areas.
The National Pork Producers Council is following the situation carefully.
“We are working closely with USDA and the other industry organizations to not only gather information about the Chinese ASF outbreak but to also identify and implement actions to help further protect the U.S. swine herd from ASF,” Liz Wagstrom, chief veterinarian with NPPC, told Farm Journal’s PORK. “We realize the situation in China is fluid and will be watching it closely.”
The virus also can become endemic in feral or wild pigs, states the Center, and transmission cycles between these animals and Ornithodoros ticks can make eradication challenging.
“This news outbreak signals that there may be a number of concerns about the status of ASF in China,” noted the SHIC report. “The distance between the original detection in Shenyang and this newly identified farm, as well as slaughterhouse, shows that the disease is being transported widely. The areas of concern now involve multiple Chinese provinces and heighten the likelihood of further cases.”
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Four key locations: Red dot, new ASF outbreak reported in slaughterhouse is located in the city of Zhengzhou in the Henan province; blue: first ASF outbreak reported in a small pig farm in district of Shenbei New, in the province of Liaoning; green dot: farm (owner Wang) located in the Hunnan District, Shenyang city, Liaoning province; purple: Tangyuan district of the city of Jiamusi, in the Heilongjiang province. |
The Chinese press is reporting that the outbreak started as early as April of this year. A partial translation from the China News (provided by SHIC) is below:
“The first ASF case was officially confirmed on Aug 3, 2018 on a small farm (owner Zhang) located in the Shenbei District, Shenyang city, Liaoning province. Further investigations indicated that the owner of the ASF index farm purchased 45 pigs on July 5, 2018 from a farm (owner Wang) located in the Hunnan District, Shenyang city, Liaoning province. Fecal samples collected from Wang’s farm were confirmed [the pigs were positive for ASF] by PCR.
“Wang said that the last entry of pigs onto the farm occurred on March 24, 2018. There were 100 piglets purchased from Chuanying District, Jilin city, Jilin province. In April, some pigs started to become sick and then died on the Wang farm. Wang did not report the abnormal pig death; instead the remaining live pigs were sold to the Zhang farm in Shenyang and other people. So far, all of the pigs initially from the Wang farm have been tracked and culled. Wang was held in a detention center due to violation of the laws.”
