Why is it such a big deal? Is it dangerous to humans? Or it’s only dangerous to pigs who eats pork?
Maybe because it could get transferred to the pig population through recycled food that gets thrown into the trash trucks.
The Circle of Death.
So quit feeding pigs pork? Like feed them corn?
But that would raise the price of pork massively probably…
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The solutions to these problems are usually blindingly obvious, but politicians like to stymie them whereever possible. I’m really not sure why. I think a lot of it has to do with economists showing them silly charts of made-up numbers illustrating how keeping pigs in unsanitary conditions is somehow more ‘efficient’.
The reality is that Taiwan could probably free-range its entire pig population and end up with much better meat, a much lower burden of disease, less cruelty, an improved ecosystem, and reduced externalities. Consumer price would be roughly the same because although it’s superficially a lot more work to raise pigs this way, it requires fewer manufactured inputs. Land usage is about the same in terms of total area, but you can use land that would not normally be much use for agriculture.
Dies quickly when cooked.
Not to humans, they just don’t want humans to spread it, through faeces or other means.
Looking through this made me realize I was having a discussion with my students about why it’s bad when animal diseases make a jump to humans almost exactly one year before an animal disease made a jump to humans (maybe). Note that this disease is STILL called African Swine Fever, yet the entire continent of Africa still hasn’t called the WHO out for being racist.
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Still a thing and still can’t import any Italian meat products. Need to stick to spanish jamon, but I get tired very quickly.
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Yes the Chinese Lab Humanised Global Pandemic Virus name doesn’t last long…
Likely the pork price will increase.
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only thing, we might be able to get back Italian meats then haha.
And they might stop running at me everytime I get off a plane in Kaohsiung with dogs and crazy ppl holding signs about nuts and vegs and sausages.
Pigs on the farm were tested after 117 of them died between Oct. 10 and 20, MOA officials said at a press conference. The farm had about 300 pigs, which were being fed with food waste, the MOA said.
At first, a vet suspected that the pigs were dying of pneumonia and was treating them for that, but as the deaths spiked to 117, samples were eventually collected and sent to the MOA’s Veterinary Research Institute for testing, according to MOA officials.
Sounds like they took quite some time to collect samples and test them…
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Over time, however, local governments began granting pig farmers permits to use food waste, on the condition that they upload photos showing that it had been sterilized at above 90 degrees Celsius for at least one hour, he said.
It appears that those rules were not strictly enforced. The farm where the ASF cases occurred is being investigated by prosecutors for not submitting any documentation of food waste sterilization from May through September, and then submitting multiple photos in October with fake dates for the previous months, the command center’s report said.
In light of the outbreak, Chen said his ministry would require pig farmers to upload proof of sterilization “immediately,” ask local governments to scrupulously carry out all scheduled inspections, and seek related regulatory changes.
Only after these changes are enacted will the government open a discussion on whether or not to ban feeding pigs food waste, Chen said.
The command center’s report on Monday said that the outbreak appears to be contained, with no positive cases found at any other domestic pig farms, processing facilities, meat markets, or slaughterhouses.
Over the weekend, Chen had suggested that the government’s current 15-day ban on the slaughter and transport of pigs in Taiwan, which extends through Thursday, may be allowed to expire if no additional cases are found.
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The fact that the food waste was not sterilized is not the source of swine fever, that’s somewhere as yet not discovered!
Yet another rule and regulation that isn’t enforced.
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I would think it’s some pork product(s) brought in from the PRC or from Vietnam that ended up in the food waste . . . and here we are.
Guy
Kind of ironic that someone risked very serious fines smuggling infected meat produce into Taiwan to save a few bucks and then it ended up in food waste.
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The farmers, surnamed Chen (陳), are suspected of altering the numbers on the triplicate form used to cover the handover of dead carcasses to off-site “rendering” operations, which use heat to make the carcasses safe for further processing into pork products.
Altering the form numbers led to differences in the forms handed to the rendering operator and the one the farmers kept, according to a statement by prosecutors on Oct. 30.
The discrepancy makes it difficult to determine whether all of the deceased pigs from the farm were handled by the rendering operator or if some may have been illegally sold on the market or disposed of separately, leading to the investigation into the farmers’ actions.
So after falsifying food sterilization papers, the farmer also falsified the forms regarding disposal of the dead pigs - so there’s quite some possibility that the farmer sold some of them illegally despite knowing they’re infected with ASF…
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