African Swine Fever Virus Threatens China’s Pork Industry
The African swine fever virus may be harmless to humans but it threatens to spread across China, the world’s top producer of pigs.
The virus has been reported in seven provinces in China since Aug. 1. An outbreak has so far caused the death of about 400,000 pigs and threatens to disrupt the $128 billion pork industry.
The African swine fever virus can survive for more than a year in a dry-cured ham, so with no vaccine available to protect animals from it, the lethal virus could easily spread among China’s 433 million pigs.
It also isn’t just China that is under threat of the virus. African swine fever may even reach other countries, including the United States.
Juan Lubroth, chief veterinary officer with the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said after an emergency meeting in Bangkok this month that the disease will almost certainly also emerge in other countries.
