Mr. Huang Baoxu, Party Secretary & Vice Director of China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, OIE China Representative: The prevention and control of African Swine Fever is an inevitable long-term
On September 19-20th 2019, “3rd World Conference on Farm Animal Welfare” was held in Qingdao. The conference was jointly co-hosted by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and China Association for the Promotion of International Agricultural Cooperation (CAPIAC). The conference featured “Consumer-driven Quality Improvement: Assuring Animal and Human Health”. Huang Baoxu, Party Secretary & Vice Director of China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, OIE China Representative, delivered a speech on the epidemic characteristics and prevention & control measures of African Swine Fever in China.
Huang Baoxu pointed out that, first of all, because the virus of African Swine Fever was very unique, it was very difficult to prevent and control it. The prevention and control of African Swine Fever in China was bound to be a long-term process. The second was that the virus was transmitted widely, and the third was that after the virus entered the farm, the latent time was long, and it was difficult to discover it and dispose of it early.
Subsequently, Huang Bao introduced about relevant prevention and control measures. “One is to improve the bio-safety level in farming. In terms of large and medium-sized farms, the epidemics in farms with more than 2,000 heads in China have almost all been carried by people or vehicles. Although the scale of China's pig farming has continued to increase, there are still many problems in terms of biosecurity. Second, it is necessary to improve biosecurity in the transportation sector. In the long run, the development of electronic trading markets, the strict management of brokers and the improvement of vehicles will be the focus; the third is to improve the biosecurity of the slaughtering process. The slaughterhouse is not only the storage of African swine fever virus, but also the diffuser of the epidemic. The State Council requires all localities to increase the management of slaughterhouses and strictly implement relevant regulations to prevent the spread of the epidemic."
Huang Baohu continued to elaborate on the three aspects of improving the biosecurity of the pig industry system, and said that it was necessary to strengthen the related project development as soon as possible. “The first is to optimize the layout of the pig industry system, balance the farming and slaughtering, and promote the general balance of production and sales of pigs in various regions. The pigs in the production area will be slaughtered nearby so as to transport meat instead of transporting pigs, thus reducing the risk of epidemic transmission. Second, the main responsibility of the producers and operators should be compacted, and the main responsibility of the practitioners should be compacted through a series of measures. The third is to improve the epidemic prevention facilities and guide the upgrading of farming and slaughter enterprises. The cleaning and disinfecting transportation vehicles, harmless treatment of dead animals and other public facilities will provide strong support for the transformation and upgrading of the pig industry."
