The findings, published in the February edition of the Chinese Journal of Veterinary Science, come amid intense debate in the industry over the evolution of the disease for which there is no approved vaccine.

Reuters news service reported last month that at least two new strains of African swine fever had been found on Chinese pig farms, which appeared to be man made.

The strains are causing a chronic form of African swine fever that is impacting production on sow farms, industry insiders have said.

The researchers at the Military Veterinary Institute in Changchun said there appeared to be a growing trend of lower mortality from African swine fever with more clinical symptoms that are not easy to detect and difficult to control.

Such characteristics have also been attributed to strains believed to have been made for use in illicit vaccines.

But the researchers said that with the prolonged period of swine fever circulating in China, natural variants would inevitably appear.

Less virulent variants have also been found in Latvia and Estonia in recent years.

The new strain, called HuB20, was isolated from pork sampled at a market in central Hubei province, said Hu Rongliang and colleagues at the institute under China’s People’s Liberation Army.

It had a partial deletion of the CD2v gene and an adjacent 8CR gene. Earlier research in Russia has suggested that deleting the two genes could protect against African swine fever.

The genes are different to those missing from virus isolates described previously to Reuters by industry participants.

“This variant does not contain any known marker genes, indicating that natural variants of ASFV are occurring in China and this may be related to the subacute epidemic of ASF in the country,” the authors wrote.

Hu and colleagues said work was underway to validate the virulence of the new strain.

The post Chinese researchers find natural mutation in African swine fever virus appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

In a joint news release, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) called on countries to join forces against the disease.

The organizations warn ASF may cause up to 100 per cent mortality in pigs and currently affects 51 countries. The OIE and FAO warn there is currently no effective vaccine for ASF.

“In this globalized world, where diseases can spread rapidly across borders, timely sharing of latest scientific information, international collaboration and notification of ASF are needed to prevent transboundary spread and minimize impact,” said FAO deputy director general, Maria Helena Semedo.

The FAO pointed to its initiative for the Global Control of ASF, jointly pursued with the OIE. The initiative seeks to, “Improve the capability of countries to control (prevent, respond, eradicate) ASF using OIE International Standards and best practices that are based on the latest science.”

It also calls for the establishment of a global co-operation framework and the facilitation of business continuity.

“Co-ordinated actions as part of the global initiative should take place alongside maintaining transparency regarding reporting of animal diseases and investing in strong and resilient animal health systems,” a press release from the organizations read.

While North America has so far dodged an encounter with ASF, plans to prevent and, if needed, combat an outbreak on Canadian soil are still in place.

Beyond working with the United States and Mexico, Canada has partnered with the provinces and industry groups to come up with an action plan for ASF.

The post Groups call for international response to African swine fever appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

China is ramping up imports as it rushes to restock after an outbreak of African swine fever swept through the country from late 2018, killing tens of millions of pigs and reducing its sow herd by as much as 60 per cent.

Soaring pork prices and a government drive to rebuild have prompted farmers who had halted buying to resume orders, with some doubling contracts that had been signed prior to the disease. Each charter is worth up to 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million).

“It’s like after the Second World War. They lost half the herd and need to repopulate fast to get it back,” said Marie Pushparajalingam, global strategist for French swine genetics company Axiom.

China imports breeding pigs to take advantage of traits like increased productivity and better meat quality that global genetics firms select for during breeding. A top breeding sow can have a litter of as many as 16 piglets.

Axiom sent two 777 charters to China in January, followed by two 747s in March, totalling about 3,400 pigs. It has signed deals for a further six planeloads later in the year, said Pushparajalingam, and is expecting additional business.

Another 500 boars bred by Dutch firm Topigs Norsvin arrived from France in southwestern Guizhou last week, said China’s Dekang Group, which will use the pigs in a nucleus breeding farm to produce 20 million pigs for slaughter.

China typically slaughters about 700 million pigs a year to produce more than 50 million tonnes of pork — about half of global consumption. But the disease outbreak cut pork output by 21 per cent in 2019, sending prices soaring, and production is set to fall again this year.

Fattened hogs in China currently cost about 35 yuan (US$4.93) a kilogram, or three times the price in France.

Under pressure to meet government targets for pork production, some provinces began offering import subsidies of about 2,000 yuan per pig to farmers last month.

Producers face a severe shortage of sows and are even holding back females normally destined for slaughter to use in breeding farms. Those pigs will produce much smaller litters than a sow bred to be a productive mother.

Imports from France alone this year look set to top the 11,000 pigs China imported from all countries in 2017, a year after pork prices hit a record.

In all, China may need more than 150 planeloads of purebred pigs to replenish its herd, according to one genetics company estimate.

The surge in demand is a boon for global genetics firms.

China’s customs has said it will allow more countries to ship live pigs, and is also working to resume exports from the United States, which has not been able to export to China during recent trade tensions.

Still, cumbersome quarantine procedures for importing pigs and obstacles related to the coronavirus outbreak will limit overall numbers.

Before shipment, pigs must undergo a month of health checks and spend another 30 days in quarantine under observation by an official Chinese vet. On arrival, the pigs spend a further 45 days in a quarantine centre to ensure they are disease free.

The coronavirus epidemic has further complicated shipments, said Laurent Poussart, manager of Francexporc, a pig freight specialist.

A sharp reduction in cargo planes flying between Europe and China is driving up costs, and China does not permit foreign airline crew to disembark.

Poussart’s latest cargo to China arrived just a day before the Chinese airline he was using cancelled all further flights to and from Europe.

The post China replenishes world’s biggest hog herd appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

A potential outbreak of the virus that has decimated China’s hog industry — and criticisms from some circles that Canada’s federal response to potential disease outbreaks are fragmented and disorganized — has prompted the potential formation of what is being called Animal Health Canada.

Megan Bergman, executive director of the National Farmed Animal Health and Welfare Council, is supporting the Animal Health Canada working group.

“It’s an initiative that evolved out of a desire from both industry and government partners to be able to develop a more cohesive approach to — and a shared responsibility to — dealing with global health emergency events,” she said. “We’re all pulling in the same direction and we’re collaborating that we have a plan that works well for everybody.”

The idea of a national animal health body spanning all key players is, in part, inspired by existing models in other countries, such as New Zealand and Australia.

Bergman said that the approach to ASF so far has been proactive, with all involved looking to identify gaps and challenges prior to, rather than during, an outbreak event.

“You know, one of the biggest challenges is how do we have an inclusive approach to governance, because it tends to be a little bit disease specific in terms of what we have in place currently,” she said, adding responses have also tended to be regionally specific. “The structure has been set up and established for how to manage those issues from province to province or region to region.”

Aline Dimitri, executive director of the Animal Health Directorate for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, says even though Animal Health Canada isn’t a formal entity currently, it will learn from the lessons of ASF.

“Because how we’re managing it is better than what we’ve managed in the past,” Dimitri said, “and we’re going to also learn from this experience on, how do we work together? What do we need to make it work well?”

Dimitri says ASF offers a “test case” for what a potential Animal Health Canada body could look like.

The federal government’s framework is currently based on four pillars: preparedness and planning, enhanced biosecurity measures, ensuring business continuity in an outbreak event and co-ordinated risk communications.

Canada on guard

North America has so far dodged an encounter with African swine fever (ASF), but plans to prevent and, if needed, combat an outbreak on Canadian soil are still rolling full steam ahead.

Beyond working with the United States and Mexico, Canada has partnered with the provinces and industry groups to come up with an action plan for ASF.

“We are actually preparing all together. We are having regular meetings with all the players to make sure that we are able to co-ordinate our preparedness, that we discuss the key policy issues, that we are on the same page when it comes to communication,” Dimitri said.

Federal and provincial government representatives, as well as industry players, are currently holding meetings every two weeks on the issue, Dimitri noted.

Agri-Food Economic Systems lead researcher Al Mussell, who was on a panel discussing the issue during the Canadian Agri-Food policy conference in Ottawa, says the risks to Canada are well known.

He used the example of “the wild boar population that seems to be expanding and the risk that ASF could trickle in and get into the wild boar population.”

“And then secondly, of course, it’s the importation via air sea transport of contaminated product from East Asia, notably China, that would come in that’s contaminated with African swine fever,” he said.

In Manitoba, the Manitoba Pork Council has also identified wild pigs as a vector for disease, including ASF.

The province, Manitoba Wildlife Federation and Manitoba Pork Council are looking at control measures for wild pigs. In May 2019, the pork council said they had brought in a third part to help control the wild population with remote activated pen traps.

The disease featured heavily during meetings of the federal, territorial and provincial leaders in late 2019, Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development Minister Blaine Pedersen said, including the financial impact should an infection be detected.

“The federal government, CFIA and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are doing a terrific job in terms of border security, making sure that we keep it out of North America,” he said.

At the same time, he added, the prospect of a local ASF infection, “cannot be like disaster financial assistance and flooding.”

“What happens when we have a flood in Manitoba, the provincial government picks up all the costs and then we go to Ottawa to try and get money out of there,” he said. “We’re working with the federal government to make sure that there is money there at the start and a federal contribution so that it doesn’t lay entirely on the shoulders of the province.”

Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba make up the lion’s share of Canada’s hog industry, he noted.

– With files from Alexis Stockford.

The post Federal government confident in African swine fever outbreak response appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Soon the dog’s handler discovered and confiscated a ham sandwich in the purse of a passenger who had flown on a China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai.

The danger? That the food might be contaminated with African swine fever and spread the disease to the United States. China has lost millions of pigs in outbreaks of the disease, pushing its pork prices to record highs, forcing purchases of costly imports and roiling global meat markets.

“It’s very likely it may come here if we aren’t more vigilant,” said Jessica Anderson, the handler for the pork-sniffing dog and an agricultural specialist for the border protection agency.

Bettie is among an expanded team of specially trained beagles at U.S. airports, part of a larger effort to protect that nation’s US$23-billion pork industry from a disease that has decimated China’s hog herd, the world’s largest. Governments worldwide are scrambling to shore up their defences as the disease spills over China’s borders, according to Reuters reporting from nine countries. The efforts underscore the grave threat to global agriculture.

African swine fever has spread to Southeast Asia and eastern Europe, with cases found in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Korea, Myanmar, the Philippines, Poland, Belgium and Bulgaria. Around the globe, those countries and others that have so far sidestepped the epidemic are cracking down on travellers, increasing cargo screenings and banning meat imports.

Pork-producing countries stand to lose billions of dollars if the disease infects their industries because outbreaks devastate farms and shut export markets. African swine fever does not threaten humans but there’s no vaccine or cure for infected pigs.

If the disease enters the United States, the top pork-exporting nation with 77.3 million hogs, the government would struggle to protect the industry, participants in a four-day drill in September told Reuters.

“If this gets in, it will destroy our industry as we know it,” said Dave Pyburn, the National Pork Board’s senior vice-president of science and technology.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) simulated an outbreak in Mississippi that spread to the nation’s top pig-producing states, including North Carolina, Iowa and Minnesota. Veterinarians, farmers and government officials gathered at command centres where they tested their capacity to swiftly detect, control and clean up after an outbreak.

The experience showed the U.S. needs to increase its capacity to quickly test pigs for the disease and to dispose of the animals without spreading it, said Pyburn, who participated in the drill.

In China, the top global pork consumer, the disease has been devastating. The exact number of hog deaths is not known. Rabobank estimated the country lost up to 55 per cent of its pig herd last year. But the Chinese government has reported smaller losses in the country’s US$1-trillion hog sector since the first case in August 2018.

Global response

The U.S. government is fielding dogs at airports and seaports, conducting outbreak-response drills and adding capacity to test pigs. France and Germany are killing hundreds of thousands of wild boar that might carry the disease. France also erected 132 kilometres (82 miles) of fencing to keep out wild boar and is planning stricter sanitary rules for pig farming, including requirements to disinfect trucks that transport swine.

Thailand culled pigs in a province close to Myanmar, where the disease has been found. South Korea ordered soldiers on its border with North Korea to capture wild boar, while Vietnam used troops to ensure infected pigs were culled.

Australia expelled travellers from Vietnam for smuggling pork and banned imports of pork products. Australia also deployed advisers to Pacific islands in an attempt to protect its closest neighbours from African swine fever. If such efforts fail, it could cost the country more than two billion Australian dollars ($1.4 billion) over five years, according to Australian Pork Limited, an industry group.

“It is certainly the biggest threat to commercial raising that we have ever seen, and arguably the biggest threat to any commercial livestock species we’ve seen,” said Mark Schipp, Australia’s chief veterinary officer.

Canada has developed a national plan including banning pork foods, sniffer dogs of its own and an emergency response plan for the industry, including disease zones recognized by customer countries.

U.S. officials plan to suspend domestic shipments of pigs among farms and to slaughterhouses if African swine fever is detected. The USDA and states could issue orders halting the movement of livestock in certain areas as a way to contain the disease.

The USDA said in a statement to Reuters that the September drill highlighted shortcomings in its guidance to states detailing when and how to limit the movement of pigs. The government is also increasing the number of laboratories it uses to test for African swine fever.

“We have identified some gaps,” said Amanda Luitjens, who took part in the drill and is animal welfare auditor for Minnesota-based pork producer Christensen Farms. “The thought of it making it to the United States is scary.”

Bans on garbage feeding

Travellers transporting meat represent the biggest risk for African swine fever to spread to the United States because the disease can live for weeks in pork products, Pyburn said.

Contaminated food can be fed to feral pigs or livestock in a practice known as garbage feeding, which the USDA says has caused outbreaks of swine diseases around the world. U.S. farmers are supposed to obtain a licence to feed pigs with food waste that contains meat and cook it to kill disease organisms.

African swine fever can also spread from pig to pig, from bites by infectious ticks and through objects such as trucks, clothing and shoes that have come into contact with the virus.

China banned the transportation of live pigs from infected provinces and neighbouring regions in an unsuccessful bid to contain its outbreaks. It also culled pigs and outlawed the use of kitchen waste for swine feed.

The disease has been detected in food products seized at airports in South Korea, Japan, Australia, the Philippines and northern Ireland.

African swine fever is thought to have arrived in the Philippines through contaminated pork smuggled from China. The Philippines is now conducting mandatory checks on carry-on luggage of passengers from countries with outbreaks.

The government of the province of Cebu in central Philippines banned imported products and those from the main Philippine island of Luzon to avoid swine fever. More than 60,000 pigs have died or been culled in Luzon because of the disease. The Philippines Department of Agriculture also banned garbage feeding that included leftover food from airports, airlines and seaports.

In the United States, low inspection rates at ports of entry increase the likelihood for illegal pork to enter the country undetected, the USDA said in a report assessing the risk from African swine fever. The agency works with Customs and Border Protection to alert all U.S. ports each time a new country is confirmed to have the disease, requesting increased scrutiny on travellers and shipments.

But Customs and Border Protection estimates it needs 3,148 people to specialize in agricultural inspections at entry points like airports and only has about 2,500.

The U.S. Senate last year authorized the annual hiring of 240 agricultural specialists a year until the workforce shortage is filled, and the training and assignment of 20 new canine teams a year. The government approved 60 new beagle teams to work at airports and seaports last year, for a total of 179 teams, according to USDA.

Those teams face a daunting challenge, said Senator Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat who introduced the legislation with other lawmakers.

“Every day, millions of passengers and tens of thousands of shipping containers carrying food products cross our nation’s borders,” he said, “any one of which could do significant damage to America’s food supply and agricultural industries.”

The post African swine fever poses global threat appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“Is it good enough to have 80 per cent of the reports in at seven days or should we have that done sooner?” Manitoba Pork general manager Andrew Dickson asked producers at a meeting in Portage on October 30.

“In the event of an African swine fever outbreak, we would really like to know what all the movements are within that day,” he said.

The live-animal hog traceability program became mandatory in 2014. PigTRACE requires that all movements of live hogs, deadstock or deadstock parts be reported within seven days.

PigTRACE manager Jeff Clark told the group that 1,547 premises in Manitoba are registered with the program. This includes 278 “hobby” farms, and 41 abattoirs, rendering facilities and other related facilities.

Recent Statistics Canada data shows 590 farms reporting hogs in Manitoba. In an email to the Manitoba Co-operator Clark clarified that Statistics Canada counts a “farm” as a farming enterprise, while PigTRACE counts physical locations of farms.

Clark told the producers that the program has collected enough data to show repeating patterns (such as regular shipments between locations), allowing him to notice new movements and abnormalities. The data can also be used to model the spread of disease — ASF, for instance.

“It’s a really exciting time for me after all these years of collecting the data,” Clark said.

Clark and Dickson noted that, while the program has been mandatory for five years, compliance isn’t perfect. Clark told the group that during a recent disease issue, they’d realized that one involved organization wasn’t reporting.

“I have to do some super-sleuthing to fill in the gaps. Is that what we want?” Clark said.

Clark asked the group to consider how hard the industry should go after non-compliers. He issues non-compliance notifications, but he could report offenders to the CFIA.

“They’re the police officers. They can take action,” Clark said. “People can hang up on me or delete the email.”

“This is an odd thing when you think about it,” said Dickson, noting that they are a producer organization implementing a federal regulation.

“It puts us as a producer organization in an awkward position,” he said, adding they know there are producers who don’t report year after year.

He and Clark speculated that some producers weren’t reporting because they’re busy, while others might be concerned about privacy. They said all information is subject to strict privacy laws.

Clark said he’s trying to reach out to reporting producers, in hopes this will encourage them to keep participating in PigTRACE.

“If I was throwing data into this black hole year after year and no one’s saying thank you or saying anything, why should I do it?” he said.

Clark told the Co-operator that along with compliance and accuracy issues, PigTRACE will also be evaluated for operation efficiencies, user-friendliness, communication, rebalancing of CPC staff workload, and will do advanced analysis of movement patterns.

The post PigTRACE hog traceability program to get an overhaul appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The city had been importing 4,000 pigs a day from mainland China for slaughter by local processors, but that number began declining late last year and has dropped to just 1,700 per day after deadly African swine fever ravaged China’s hog herd. The disease, for which there is no vaccine, isn’t harmful to humans.

Pork retail prices in Hong Kong more than doubled to HK$159 (C$27.01) per kg in the year to September, tracking soaring prices in China. The city’s 7.4 million people consumed about 550,000 tonnes of pork last year, according to United States Department of Agriculture data, more per capita than most other countries.

In a written response to a question raised by a member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, Chan said the city had been in contact with authorities in Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia to express an interest in importing from those countries.

“As importation of live food animals entails public health and food safety considerations and the outbreaks of African swine fever in the neighbouring countries are emerging, we have to exercise caution,” said Chan.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department also plans to visit Singapore in December to learn about its rules on importing live pigs from Malaysia by sea, Chan said.

The authority, which was asked to look into new sources of imports by the local pork trade, has also held meetings to discuss the feasibility and work needed to guard against African swine fever when importing from new countries.

The disease has spread across Asia and was detected in South Korea earlier this year, leading to the culling of about 380,000 pigs to contain the disease, or about three per cent of the country’s pig herd. No new cases have been detected since Oct. 10.

Neither Thailand nor Malaysia have yet confirmed the disease on their territory, although Thailand is on high alert, with the disease widespread in neighbouring countries Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

It has also reached Vietnam, the Philippines and is likely present in Indonesia.

The post Hong Kong mulls Southeast Asia pig imports appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ten EU nations are currently affected by African swine fever, with particularly bad outbreaks in Bulgaria and its neighbour Romania. Slovakia was affected by the disease in four backyard farms as of July.

“Fighting African swine fever in the EU represents an extreme and urgent challenge,” EU Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told Reuters in an email.

Bulgaria, one of the EU’s poorest states, has reported more than 30 outbreaks of the disease — which is incurable in pigs but harmless to humans — at industrial or backyard farms. Around 130,000 pigs have already been culled.

The disease spread to the EU from Russia and Belarus. Most outbreaks occurred in small farms and were contained, although the European Food Safety Authority says it is still spreading locally among wild boar.

Bulgaria’s deputy agriculture minister said Aug. 7 that the country has failed to contain the spread of the disease, while experts say Bulgaria could lose its entire 600,000 pig-breeding industry.

The situation “is very worrying,” Itkonen told a media briefing, urging action against a “catastrophic animal disease” which industry officials in Bulgaria fear could cause damages of up to two billion levs ($1.15 billion).

An outbreak of African swine fever in China is forecast by experts to wipe out about a third of Chinese pork production this year, or 18 million tonnes, twice the amount of pork exported worldwide every year.

There have also been outbreaks of the disease in other parts of Asia and eastern Europe.

The EU’s head of health and food safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, offered EU support to Bulgaria when he met the country’s agriculture minister, Desislava Taneva Aug. 5.

Bulgaria will receive 2.9 million euros ($3.25 million) in EU financial aid to combat the disease, Taneva said.

The post EU fights ‘urgent challenge’ of African swine fever spread appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

From farms to feed mills to transport, people involved in the pork industry say biosecurity has been tightened, with sales of disinfectants and truck cleaning washes booming as farmers try to fend off the virus.

Farm owner Ma, whose 4,000 herd pig farm was visited by Reuters last year, says she is disinfecting inside and outside pig barns every other day, instead of once or twice a week.

She has also invested in her own truck for delivering pigs to the slaughterhouse and bringing in feed supplies to try to prevent contamination.

“We don’t let other trucks come in. It’s safer to have your own truck,” Ma told Reuters by phone, adding that nobody is allowed to visit in case they bring in the virus.

The change in mindset comes as the disease – which is not harmful to people but kills almost all pigs it infects – has reached every province of the country. There is no cure and, importantly in changing long-term habits, no vaccine.

Official June data released in mid-July showed China’s pig herd — the world’s largest at over 400 million head a year ago — has since shrunk by more than a quarter, although some industry insiders say the numbers may be far higher.

Standards of cleanliness on farms, many of which are small-scale, vary widely, say industry participants, while trucks that transport pigs, feed and other supplies are often not properly cleaned and disinfected between trips.

African swine fever, which spreads through blood, faeces, and other fluids, can last for months on farm surfaces or equipment that has not been properly cleaned.

“We see some significant step-ups in biosecurity measures. People are now recognizing that something needs to be done,” said Matthias Arnold, an executive at the Material Protection Products unit of German chemicals firm Lanxess, which sells a popular disinfectant.

Sales of gluteraldehyde, a chemical proven to kill the virus, are up three or four times since last year, said Pan Yunping, general sales manager at Jiangsu Kangbat Biotechnology Engineering Co Ltd in China’s eastern Jiangsu province.

Demand for Belgian firm CID Lines’ Cid20, which also contains aldehyde, has more than doubled from last year, and the firm is unable to meet demand, said Niu Yufeng, China business development manager.

The post China’s pig farms clean up to beat swine fever appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Canada’s PigTRACE program will be raising ear tag prices as of Aug. 1.

[Click here for the price list as of Aug. 1] 

Prices will go up 20 cents for every small ear tag and 35 cents for every large ear tag, a release from the Manitoba Pork Council said.

Why it matters: Canada’s pig traceability program is getting a price increase as the industry keeps a wary watch on China’s African swine fever fight.

The Manitoba Pork Council is urging producers to buy into the program, despite the increased cost. Both the provincial and national pork councils cite PigTRACE is Canada’s effort to prepare for African swine fever and limit impact if the deadly disease is found in Canada. The program will be critical for zoning, both the Manitoba Pork Council and Canadian Pork Council say.

Canada has renewed or updated zoning understandings with both the U.S. and European Union in recent months as fear of African swine fever grows. The virus has yet to spread to North America, although Reuters recently reported that outbreaks in China may have claimed up to half that country’s hogs, flying in the face of the much lower official estimates.

“With increased foreign animal disease risk putting traceability at the centre of preparedness and zoning activities, PigTRACE is more important than ever,” the Manitoba Pork Council said. “These price increases are a necessary step towards maintaining the long-term financial sustainability of the program due to increasing operational costs.”

The jump will not apply for any order made and paid for by July 31, the council said.

The post PigTRACE price to go up appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.