China is definitely not having a good year…..

China has confirmed two cases of African swine fever in northwestern Gansu province, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Thursday.

One outbreak occurred in a co-operative that had bought piglets from another province, while the second case was detected in a truck transporting piglets from elsewhere.

Swine fever has already decimated China’s huge hog herd and continues to spread, posing high risks for farms that are urgently trying to restock farms with young pigs.

reuters.com

African Swine Fever (ASF) does not cause human disease, unlike COVID-19. However, ASF is a viral hemorrhagic disease that is uniformly deadly to pigs.

From what I’ve read in the past, ASF has been a serious problem in China (domestic and wild pigs) and Europe (wild boar population) for several years. It’s spreading throughout Asia - slowly - despite attempts to contain it. AFAIK, it’s not in the America’s, at least not yet.

There is an experimental European ASF vaccine being tested that, so far, has not killed the pigs it’s been administered to, unlike previous ASF vaccine ‘prototypes.’ We’ll know in six months or so if it’s effective, but people are hopeful.

European pig farmers are justifiably freaking out that ASF will get into the EU’s domestic production, which could devastate European pork production and bear in mind that pork is essentially a dietary staple in many parts of Europe, much like it is in China. I think there’s been some culling of wild boar herds in Europe to prevent an ASF outbreak from entering domestic pig farms.