Large Chinese pig farms to test for ASF
Announced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, larger farms have been encouraged to obtain ASF testing kits that have been approved by the Ministry or the China Animal Disease Control Centre.
Previously, farms had been prohibited from carrying out their own testing but this has been overturned due to the raft of ASF incidents recorded in the country over the past year.
China has been the market most affected by ASF, with Rabobank predicting that production may be cut by up to 35% in 2019. The disease has been recorded in every province of the country, with up to 200m pigs estimated to have been culled while some of the leading Chinese pork producers have shown a drop in profits.
The growth in the number of recorded incidents has led to many Governments implementing preventative measures. ASF has also led to the cancellation of this year’s World Pork Expo in the US by the National Pork Producers Council.
