It has been confirmed by China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center today (16 August) that 30 out of 260 live pigs died from African swine fever whilst being transported from Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province to Zhengzhou City, Henan Province by Shuanghui Zhengzhou Slaughterhouse.

It is worth noting that the transportation route includes Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, which is where the first ASF outbreak was confirmed 3 August 2018.

To prevent the further spread of the disease, Zhengzhou Municipal Government has released a blockade on orders effective from today, August 16, 2018:

• Shuanghui Zhengzhou Slaughterhouse is demarcated as an infected area and is sealed off for six weeks.
• The area within a radius of three kilometers surrounding the Shuanghui’s slaughterhouse is demarcated as an infected area; within a radius of ten kilometers, the area is regarded as vulnerable. The government would implement an emergency response mechanism in the above areas to cope with the situation.
• During the blockade period, all personnel, vehicles and relevant articles in Shuanghui Zhengzhou Slaughterhouse must receive proper, effective sanitisation. The transport of pigs and relevant products is also banned in and out of the blockaded area.
• All infected pigs must be culled and innocuously treated, and waste disposed of in properly.

It is the second week since the first ASF case was identified in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. Despite the outbreak of ASF, the domestic live pig price increased by 5.3 percent to CNY13.7 per kg on August 16, 2018, compared with the price on August 2, 2018. Therefore, the negative influence of ASF’s outbreak on China’s pork market is limited so far.

However, it is important to note that the spread of ASF to Zhengzhou City this week could be a turning point; the transportation route of these infected pigs indicates that ASF is not under control and at least six provinces are involved, including the three provinces of northeast China (Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning).

Concern surrounding the ASF outbreak would further dampen local and even national pork consumption demand in a short time. The stock performance of major public pig-breeding companies in the capital market verified this point. After the news of Shuanghui’s blockaded slaughterhouse was released in today, Shuanghui Development (Ticker No. 000895) fell by 10 percent, while Wens Shares (Ticker No. 300498) and Muyuan Shares (Ticker No. 002714) also reported a drop of 6.28 percent and 5.7 percent respectively.

^{Reported by Angela Zhang}

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