#AfricanSwineFever hits Hong Kong

https://brownfieldagnews.com/news/hong-kong-reports-first-cases-of-asf-this-year/

#AfricanSwineFever lands in Malaysia:

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/malaysia-to-cull-3-000-pigs-after-finding-first-swine-fever-case-1.1570781

!

#AfricanSwineFever ?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-22/china-is-investigating-heaps-of-dead-pigs-along-the-yellow-river

#AfricanSwineFever https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/international/2021/03/10/302478.htm

China institutes “No Pig Zones” to limit the flow of #AfricanSwineFever .

What’s left unsaid here: this sets the stage for use of 4IR tech like tagging & geofencing to prevent epidemiological spread — now it is needed for your safety:

“With new guidelines expected to be in place in a matter of days, areas known for little or no pig farming will have to increase capacity. 

"Some areas that used to call themselves no-pig counties or no-pig cities will have to build pig farms," Guofa said. 

Under the guidelines, the only way for pork to be transported across regions will have to be in frozen meat form, leading to an expansion of the cold-chain industry, added Guofa. “

#china

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/china-creates-countrywide-pig-zones-limit-african-swine-fever

More predictive rumblings about the "imminent destruction of the $50bb US pork industry" to ASF via wild hogs.

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Wild Pigs Could Trigger Decimation of US Pork Industry

What happens when wild pigs are given 1,000 tons of groceries per day in the form of landfill trash? Expect an explosion in pig and litter size, and quite possibly, a $50 billion decimation of the entire U.S. pork industry.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has become ground zero for research drawing a nexus between wild pigs and the potential introduction of African swine fever (ASF) into the U.S. At an SRS location, wild pigs have grown notably bigger and birthed larger litters in just a handful of years, attributable to the establishment of a landfill—a veritable hog buffet. The SRS landfill and other similar refuse dumps across the U.S. may be ticking time bombs, and could open America’s door to ASF, an epic porcine disease with no vaccine or cure, and a century-long track record of sweeping over international borders and wiping out billions of pigs.

#AfricanSwineFever

https://www.agweb.com/news/livestock/pork/wild-pigs-could-trigger-decimation-us-pork-industry

ASF has made the jump from wild hogs into German farm pigs. This is a big deal, and will cause more trade bans and perhaps even harvest bans as we saw last year:

#AfricanSwineFever

https://www.pigprogress.net/Health/Articles/2021/7/ASF-Germany-first-outbreaks-of-ASF-in-domestic-pigs-771160E/

African Swine Fever has reached the Dominican Republic - threatening US hog industry

This is a timebomb. Recall that USDA has done drills about ASF reaching (and ending much of) US hog farming.

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African Swine Fever has reached the American region through the Dominican Republic. So far, local authorities and USDA experts are investigating 389 suspicious samples, of which 273 have been confirmed and transmitted to OIE as ASF outbreaks. [IAF: 273 suddenly all at once??]

The outbreak has occurred in an area located between the Sánchez Ramírez and Montecristi provinces, and it is considered that it may affect, in the absence of appropriate analyzes, 842 animals, including farm animals and those raised by families in the backyard. In total, these provinces have 15,000 and 4,600 pigs, respectively. The country's pig herd does not exceed two million pigs.

Despite the fact that the Dominican Republic is not an important player in the region's pork market, this is a signal of alert for other countries such as Brazil, the US and Canada which are well-positioned in the international market.

#AfricanSwineFever

https://euromeatnews.com/Article-ASF-enters-America-through-the-Dominican-Republic-/4845

African Swine Fever reaches Americas - Threatens #1 Pork Exporter, USA

African Swine Fever, which destroyed 70% of China's pork, has been confirmed in the Americas. Though the USDA assures us all is well due to new biosecurity measures, failures to contain ASF in China, Germany, and elsewhere suggest otherwise. Could this lead to the shutdown of the #1 pork exporter in the world - and do unimaginable damage to farmers in the USA? Is traditional farming and ranching really too dirty and dangerous to continue, or is this part of the war on meat? Christian breaks it down in this Ice Age Farmer broadcast.

https://youtu.be/wd1axeHgYe8

#iafvideo #AfricanSwineFever #usa #Germany #China #ZoonoticThreat #WarOnMeat

As mentioned in the ASF report - China has rebuilt their herd not with smaller farmers, but with indoor, tech-driven operations:

China Is Putting Pigs In 13-Storey "Hog Hotels" To Keep Germs Out

China is taking hog biosecurity to new levels -- 13 stories in fact.
That's the height of a building in southern China where more than 10,000 pigs are kept in a condominium-style complex, complete with restricted access, security cameras, in-house veterinary services and carefully prepared meals.

The seemingly luxurious conditions represent a state-of-the-art approach to biosecurity in which pigs -- the main source of meat in China -- are shielded from viruses, including the devastating African swine fever that wiped out half the nation's hogs in the two years before the coronavirus pandemic emerged.

Nicknamed "hog hotels," these gigantic vertical farms are being built by companies, including Muyuan Foods and New Hope Group, emulating the strict controls major suppliers in other countries have used to prevent outbreaks of the devastating disease.

China is copying best-practices from Europe and the U.S. to close its biosecurity gap, said Rupert Claxton, the U.K.-based meat director at consultant Gira, who has been providing advice to farmers and businesses for two decades. "In 20 years, it's done what the Americans took probably 100 years to do," he said.

Lethal African swine fever, which sickens pigs much like Ebola kills humans, caused a dramatic outbreak in China in 2018. Within a year, roughly half the nation's herd of more than 400 million pigs had been wiped out -- more than the entire annual output of the U.S. and Brazil combined -- leading to rocketing prices and unprecedented imports.

Top Priority

Food security became a top priority, and as inflation surged to the highest in eight years, the government had to turn to emergency sources of frozen meat to cool prices. New agriculture policies were instituted to accelerate a shift to large-scale, industrial operations over backyard farms that have traditionally fattened pigs on raw kitchen scraps and swill -- the main sources of African swine fever.

Now, domestic hog numbers recovered more swiftly than anticipated because mega farms have expanded capacity so aggressively. Wholesale pork prices have tumbled so much that it tripped the government's new alert system, prompting authorities to begin buying pork for state reserves and to shore up the market.

#AfricanSwineFever #China

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-is-putting-pigs-in-13-storey-hog-hotels-to-keep-germs-out-2500349

El Salvadore bans pork imports over #AfricanSwineFever fears as Ripples Start from Domincan Republic ASF outbreak:

https://www.eaglenews.ph/el-salvador-bans-pork-imports-over-african-swine-fever-fears/amp/

South Korea Reports African Swine Fever on Large Commercial Pig Farm

A South Korea pig farm with 2,400 pigs confirmed an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) on Sunday. The country is on high alert to contain the spread of this deadly virus just three months after the latest confirmed case on May 4.

According to the Korea Herald, the government-led ASF task force announced that the ASF case was confirmed at a domesticated pig farm in Goseong-gun, Gangwon Province. This farm is the only pig farm in a three-kilometer radius. There are two other farms with a combined 3,100 pigs in a 10-kilometer radius.

To date, South Korea has confirmed 18 cases of ASF at local pig farms since the outbreak started in September 2019. Authorities culled more than 450,000 farmed pigs culled across 14 pig farms in the first 30 days. Counting wild boars, ASF has been confirmed in a total of 1,517 cases.

#AfricanSwineFever

https://www.porkbusiness.com/news/industry/south-korea-reports-african-swine-fever-large-commercial-pig-farm

Now that ASF has reached Haiti via Dominican Republic, it is only a matter of time before it is introduced into the US pork supply.

Analysts are anticipating a number of different vectors like refugee migrations (pictured), but remember that the USDA’s own war games anticipated it would arrive via infected animal feed.

#AfricanSwineFever

Mainstream media continues preparing the script for #AfricanSwineFever to destroy the US pork industry as it did China’s.

Please pay special attention to the USDA's script, below far (which they announced in their ASF wargaming exercises last in 2019), about killing pigs and wild hogs.

And just two weeks ago the USDA announced a vaccine candidate for ASF!

Yes -- even more significant disruptions to our food supply are in the works! Get ready!

#WarOnMeat

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A DISEASE OUTBREAK blossoms in China. Exactly how it emerges, far from the eyes of any surveilling scientist, no one can quite explain. It spreads with incredible speed, killing in wide swaths, freezing transport and trade, and causing vast economic disruption. Hitchhiking on global travel, it circles the world. There is no cure, and no vaccine. Inevitably, it arrives in the Americas, in July 2021.

Yup, 2021. The year is not a typo. This outbreak isn’t Covid; it is a parallel, hidden pandemic, a deadly animal disease called African swine fever that was detected in the Dominican Republic in July. African swine fever poses no risk to humans, but it is incredibly destructive to livestock: Those deaths in China were millions of pigs, at least one-quarter—and possibly one-half—of the entire herd of the world’s largest pork producer.

[IAF: then they make the case for a vaccine]

As with the Covid pandemic at its start, there is no vaccine—but also as with Covid, there is the glimmer of hope for one, thanks to basic science that has been laying down findings for years without receiving much attention. Two weeks ago, a multinational team led by scientists at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service announced that they had achieved a vaccine candidate, based on a weakened version of the virus with a key gene deleted, and demonstrated its effectiveness in a field trial, in pigs, in Vietnam.

“The US is the largest pork exporter in the world,” says Andres Perez, a veterinary epidemiologist and director of the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety at the University of Minnesota. “If African swine fever were to enter the US, there would be an extreme impact on the economy of a number of states. That is why it should be a concern for the public.”

[IAF: here is the USDA's playbook for how to respond to this "inevitable crisis”]

If the disease were detected in the US, the USDA would oversee comprehensive animal slaughter—delicately called “depopulation”—at the farm where it was found, ones nearby, and also farms that had any contact with the first farm via movement of people, trucks, rented-equipment operators, or field reps. At the same time, the agency would order a “national movement standstill” of all swine in the US (and even swine semen being shipped somewhere) for at least 72 hours.

Depending on the location, the agency might also send out teams to hunt feral hogs that might be involved.

https://www.wired.com/story/another-global-pandemic-is-spreading-among-pigs/

African Swine Fever reported in Thailand, (and in Italy, see next post)
_

#AfricanSwineFever in Thailand: First case reported in slaughterhouse

Authorities launched a probe at the weekend, after growing public speculation that the disease was already decimating Thai pig herds, and amid accusations of a cover-up.

https://www.pigprogress.net/Health/Articles/2022/1/ASF-Thailand-First-case-reported-in-slaughterhouse-840611E/

African Swine Fever confirmed in North Italy

The westward spread into central/western Europe is likely unavoidable, and will result in enormous culls of pig populations over the next decade, like what we’ve seen in China & S. Korea.

The risk of appearing in USA also grows…
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A case of African swine fever has been detected in a wild boar in Italy, news agency ANSA said Friday, raising fears of a blow to the country’s meat industry.

Highly transmissible and fatal for pig populations, African swine fever (ASF) does not present a risk for human health but risks serious repercussions for pork producers.

Italy, with about 8.9 million pigs, is the seventh biggest pork producer in the European Union, representing an 8 billion euro (9.1 billion U.S. dollars) industry, according to the agricultural association Confagricoltura.

“The events observed in the last six months confirm the global threat of ASF, which continues to spread with serious impacts on pig production systems, animal health and welfare, as well as the socio-economic impacts on livelihoods, national food security and international trade,” the report said.

#AfricanSwineFever #Italy #WarOnMeat

Italy: African Swine Fever prompts culling of 2.1 million boar, export bans

The European Union on Monday told Italy to establish an infected zone for African swine fever in areas of Rome and implement special control measures to stop it spreading.

It said Italy must "ensure that consignments of porcine animals kept in the areas listed as an infected zone... and products thereof are not authorised for movements to other Member States and to third countries".

The government plans to cull wild boar, after several cases of swine fever were detected in Rome and with the animals becoming increasingly brazen about their encroachments into residential areas as they forage, especially in the capital.

The Rome cases, which rose to six Friday, are the first outside the area of the original outbreak in Liguria and Piedmont.

The authorities said two more cases were found in Liguria on Monday, taking the total for that region and Piedmont up to 119.

The Coldiretti farm group said some 2.1 million boar needed to be culled in Italy as "a real risk to public safety". (ANSA).

#AfricanSwineFever

https://www.ansa.it/english/newswire/english_service/2022/05/16/eu-tells-italy-to-establish-rome-swine-fever-infected-zone-2_17f49660-3ea9-41c3-8234-2226204f56ed.html

Nepal reports first African swine fever outbreak

#AfricanSwineFever

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/nepal-reports-first-african-swine-fever-outbreak/articleshow/91680133.cms