African swine fever is spreading rapidly in China, again
The country has kept covid-19 in check, but its pigs are dying in droves
What you need to know:
The country has kept covid-19 in check, but its pigs are dying in droves
BEIJING - Less than two years ago Chinese officials warned that the spread of a deadly and highly transmissible virus was threatening the country’s economic stability and its people’s prosperity. Curbing the outbreak was a “major political task” said Hu Chunhua, a deputy prime minister and member of the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo. He said his instructions on how to tame the disease were to be treated as a “military-style order”.
Mr Hu was speaking in August 2019, months before covid-19 was identified. He was referring to another virus—the one that causes African swine fever. This haemorrhagic disease is harmless to humans but deadly to the pigs that provide one of China’s most important sources of food and a livelihood for tens of millions of the country’s farmers. In contrast with its remarkably effective battle against covid-19, China has failed to conquer swine fever. “It seems like China can’t do for pigs what it did for people,” says an executive at a Chinese pig firm.
