Page 15 - Australian Pork Newspaper

China has been building multi-level ‘pig hotels’ facilities in an effort to protect against disease. China has been importing large volumes of meat, suggesting its pig herd is not recovering as Photo: Reuters quickly as claimed. Source: Thomas Elder Markets
New African swine fever variants kill millions of pigs in China
A SECOND outbreak of ASF variants that swept Mr Quilty said there these significant numbers, declining rapidly, then derstood to have emerged “This second wave will
African swine fever – es- timated to have killed as many as 8 million pigs in China since the start of the year – has derailed the country’s plans to re- build its national herd.
through China in the past two months had signifi- cant implications for the global protein market.
were a number of indica- tors that suggested China was “nowhere near the herd rebuild” its ministry of agriculture claimed.
they'd be back at pre-ASF levels and then add to that this second wave of swine fever.”
that will point towards an effective rebuild,” Mr Whitelaw said.
from illegal vaccines, and that there were no signs of countries being able slow the spread.
put China’s rebuild many years behind and so on- going high prices, I think, are here to stay for at least two to three years.”
Within a year of the first reported outbreak of the disease in August 2018, it had spread to multiple countries and killed an estimated 25 percent quarter of the world’s pig population.
“Because in the last six to eight weeks, this second wave – due to several new strains of the virus – has killed between seven and eight million sows.”
“Hog prices are two to three times higher and sow prices are more than double.
Analyst Andrew Whitelaw highlights in his article ‘Why I Don't Trust Chinese Data on the Pig Herd Rebuild’, that el- evated pork prices were not the only issue — Chi- na’s imports of meat were also on the rise.
Mr Quilty said there were three known strains of African swine fever, two of which were un-
“The ramifications for global meat prices would be significant,” Mr Quilty said.
“You just can’t take 7-8 million sows out of the system and not have an impact on cereal de- mand.”
Independent meat ana- lyst Simon Quilty said the
“So, if the herd was back to the level they claim, we would not be seeing
“When imports start
“There’s no doubt that meat prices will go higher, be it pork, beef or chicken.
“China has just come out in recent days claiming that by the middle of this year they will be back to 100 percent recovery, which is simply impos- sible,” Mr Quilty said.
“Piglet prices in China are today four times the value of what they were pre-African swine fever in 2017-18,” he said.
Mr Quilty is not alone is his scepticism about China’s claims.
One of the biggest drivers of meat pricing in the past couple of years was the impact of Af- rican swine fever, and Mr Whitelaw estimated that pig deaths in China last year created a protein gap of approximately 25 mil- lion tonnes.
He said China’s push towards building super complexes – or so-called pig hotels – was also un- derstood to have been im- pacted.
“Also, I think we’ve seen this enormous jump in global corn and cereal prices — but with this re- cent collapse in the herd, the net effect is there will be an easing on demand.
Vietnam successfully clones pot-bellied pigs
Metrowest designed the SABOR boar house to ensure optimum comfort for the animals.
Metrowest provides Australia’s newest and largest pig AI centre
AUSTRALIA’S pre- mier and largest ar- tificial insemination facility has been de- signed and constructed by Metrowest.
livery of feed and water. The project require- ment was to provide SABOR with a housing system that keeps their boars in optimum con-
conditions and stock densities.
everyday use as easy as possible.
When SABOR re- quired a new building to service the growing herd of over 200 boars, they turned to Metrowest.
areas were the environ- ment, feed and water delivery systems.
Correctly sized and installed Fancom equip- ment and controllers provide an optimum climate for the boars, year-round.
Metrowest buildings provides a light and wel- coming environment for staff and animals.
Metrowest, along with its partners, have de- signed the SABOR boar house to ensure op- timum comfort for the animals.
Metrowest provided SABOR with a turnkey solution that allowed them to collaborate on the design and meet their exact require- ments.
Penning was designed and sourced to match SABOR’s existing setup.
Do it once, do it right applies to Metrowest’s building philosophy, and back up is always available from our friendly staff.
This is achieved through continuous monitoring of the cli- mate and effective de-
The climate control systems are designed with consideration for
Metrowest also sup- plies feed systems and equipment that are of long-lasting quality, and with details that make
For more information, visit metrowest.com.au
ditions.
The most important
This project features a perfectly controlled en- vironment via a combi- tunnel system.
The building itself is a Metrowest standard building with Colorbond roof and ceiling, fully insulated and finished to the highest standard.
VIETNAM has cloned the endangered Vietnamese pot-bellied pig by using an innovative somatic cell cloning method.
the baby pigs was a techno- logical leap for Vietnam in animal cloning.
reared for meat.
With their characteristic
Vietnam’s Institute of Animal Sciences and Min- istry of Agriculture cloned four baby Vietnamese pot- bellied pigs by using so- matic cells derived from ear tissues.
Though it is not consid- ered to bring in high eco- nomic value, the breed’s meat is regarded to be of high quality.
Head of the animal sci- ences institute Pham Cong Thieu said the "birth" of
The Vietnamese pot-bel- lied pig is a traditional do- mestic breed that is native to northern Vietnam and is
The Food and Agricul- ture Organisation of the United Nations has classi- fied the pig as an endan- gered breed.
“The achievement has opened up new research paths for applying animal cloning technologies in choosing and preserving animal breeds that are very rare or have big economic value," he said.
black and wrinkled skin, they are native to northern Vietnam.
The endangered Vietnamese pot-bellied pig has been cloned using an innovative somatic cell cloning method.
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Australian Pork Newspaper, April 2021 – Page 15