A killer pig disease which has ravaged porcine stocks in south
China may soon be broken as Chinese veterinary officials on
Thursday unveiled a new diagnostic reagent and vaccine, which they
confidently claim could halt the outbreak.
The Ministry of Agriculture immediately stated that a mass
immunization of pig stocks would be completed soon due to blue ear
disease thriving during hot and humid conditions.
The disease -- officially named porcine reproductive and
respiratory syndrome -- is not dangerous for humans but is
still listed as one of 61 class II animal epidemic diseases that
must swiftly be brought to heel.
The vaccine developed jointly by the Chinese Center of Animal
Disease Control and Prevention and the China Institute of
Veterinary Drug Control will undergo its first run in the
epidemic-stricken Guangdong Province.
"We will speed up the production and distribution of vaccines
and simultaneously tighten quality supervision," said the
ministry's release.
Veterinary departments are instructed to remain on their guards
for reports of the disease and must notify authorities at once.
"Once the virus mutates, it will become more pathogenic and more
difficult to cure," it warned.
A major problem in controlling the epidemic is the poor breeding
conditions the pigs are kept in with farmers allowing the pigs to
roam in open areas and the few pens are too rarely kitted out with
effective anti-epidemic measures. The transportation of live pigs
is also a contributing factor for the quick spread of the disease,
the ministry's statement read.
To prevent such an outbreak from occurring again, a nationwide
research plan will be carried out to create better preventive
measures and emergency action plans.
Chinese epidemiologists have charted the disease's origins in
China back to the mid-90s with the latest strand in the town of
Silao near Yunfu was caused by a deadly mutation thereof.
Towards the end of April, over 300 pigs died from hemorrhaging
after becoming feverish. The afflicted animals were those raised by
individual farmsteads, not by industrial pig farms, negating any
risk that infected animals were exported.
The government has also delivered two reports to the World
Organization for Animal Health and the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization.
(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2007)