China launches investigation into death of 1000 pigs

China launches investigation into death of 1000 pigs

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

BEIJING: More than 1000 pigs have been found dead in the northern China province, necessitating an official investigation into the matter.


Around 1,056 pigs with 80 per cent of them less then a month old were found dead in 10 villages in Hongdong province, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Samples have been sent to animal disease control and prevention centre in Shanxi to carry out further investigation, officials said.

Till now 637 pigs have been buried and 25 burned to prevent the spread of the disease, said Wang Zhijian, Vice Director Hongdong security Bureau.

No contaminated pork has been found in stores or restaurants till now, they added.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The last great pandemic has been attributed to viruses mutating through close proximity of species.

The battlegrounds of WW1 proved the perfect breeding ground for avian flu viruses to pass from chickens to pigs to humans. Chickens, pigs and humans were stationed in the same insanitary conditions in WW1. Pigs and humans have exceptionally similar physical make up and whilst viruses dont often pass from chicken to man, there's a higher probability from pigs to humans.

Given the concentration of avian flu viruses in the far east, the story above makes very worrying reading.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

No contaminated pork has been found in stores or restaurants till now, they added

That isn't quite clear to me. Does that mean they HAVE found some?

No contaminated pork has been found in stores or restaurants till now, they added.

Um, and, well, what might that disease be?
And that means they did find it?
Confusing line that.

1000 dead piggies.
How horrid.

Let's hope *This little one went to Market* doesn't visit your local deli soon.

peace

reply to post by b0n3zassassin


Unsure on that one, the way I read that was that they believe that up till now none has reached the foodchain...but there's still a danger.

Pigs will eat anything (I lived in vietnam and more often than not there were pig styes supplying the restaurant DIRECTLY below the human latrines...use your imagination!), so my take is that maybe they have eaten infected chicken meat and a virus has jumped the species barrier.

It's an even shorter jump from porkies to us...

It worries me greatly - I feel that the biggest threat to humankind is from our food. Overpopulation forces animal husbandry methods that encourage disease.

Third world countries are unequipped and often not educated in appropriate controls over animal disease - this is a gigantic threat to us

Bird flu is back on the cards then?

Thought this one had gone the way of "SARS". Remember that one? "Severe Acute Respitory Syndrome"... how anything can be severe and acute at the same time is puzzling, surely they mean the same thing?

Anyhoo, I digress.. Worrying development if it is Bird Flu related...

Local authorities say it's blue ear.

The death of 1,056 pigs in Hongdong County in north China's Shanxi Province was caused by blue-ear disease, local authorities said Monday.

linkey winkwy

reply to post by Now_Then


How ironic. While we're hear worrying about Bird Flu spreading to humans from China, Blue Ear appears to have orignated in the America's and Europe, then onto China. Apparently it costs US pork producers $600 Million annually.

Cheers guys - this is a great place to get loads of info together at once...bet reuters cant get info together this quickly.

Exceptionally interesting. Never heard of blue ear.

Thanks for this - helps.

Annie

Thanks for the quick replies.

And here is a link to what blue ear disease is...

now what concerns me, after doing a quick read through....

It may take up to a year for all breeding stock, particularly in large herds, to become infected for the first time and although the virus appears to spread rapidly in a herd it may be some 4 -5 months before at least 90% of the sows have become sero-positive.

within less than a month, sows were infected and killed....

Sounds exceptionally serious.

I wonder what steps will be put in place to contain it, given the time taken for infection?

Given the economic issues in China, this surely has the potential to create a great deal more unrest should it spread. It must be incredibly unsettling for the people in those provinces which are affected.

If it isn't taken care it will be quite interesting to see the effects.

Not only on the economy, but on the pig population..

[edit on 10-2-2009 by b0n3zassassin]

Im Vegetarian

Maybe it was Cheap, old food and water being fed to them?
Poor little piggies

reply to post by annefran


Apparently, this has been happenign for some time in China and as a result, pork prices have jumped 86% in the past year. The Chinese value pork as a staple meat in their diet, so it is very important to them and hits them hard.

Originally posted by MR BOB
Im Vegetarian

Maybe it was Cheap, old food and water being fed to them?
Poor little piggies

I agree - poor animal husbandry has a lot to answer for

That is an awesome statistic.

Scary times for the chinese - how do you think this will affect relations with the West?

I think the relations could go either way honestly. They might try to blame it on spies or something, or they could decide to start getting pork from the U.S., who knows.

And the fact that this has been going on for over a year, that's just kinda odd. They know that this is happening, it is a giant part of their diet, and yet they are apparently not doing much, if anything, to try and stop it.

This could be absolutely devastating for them - given the level of communities where families keep pigs as part of their daily life, are poorly educated and have little access to an efficient communications infrastructure.

This would be difficult to eradicate. I feel very sorry for the villages that this is affecting as these people rely on their animals to feed their families.