Pig virus outbreak spawns fear of pandemic  


Fri, Aug 17, 2007
The Straits Times



CHENGDU - A HIGHLY infectious swine virus is sweeping through China's pig population, driving up pork prices and spawning fears of a global pandemic among domesticated pigs.
And animal-virus experts say the Chinese authorities are downplaying the gravity and spread of the disease and refusing to cooperate with international scientists.

So far, the mysterious virus - believed to be an unusually deadly form of an infection known as blue ear pig disease - has spread to 25 of the country's 33 provinces and regions, prompting a pork shortage and the strongest inflation in China in a decade.


More than that, China's past lack of transparency - particularly over what became the Sars epidemic - has created global concern.

'They haven't really explained what this virus is,' said professor of immunology Federico Zuckermann at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.

'This is like Sars. They haven't sent samples to any international body. This is really irresponsible of China. This thing could get out and affect everyone.'

Although the Chinese government acknowledges that the current virus has decimated pig stocks in coastal and southern areas, it has not admitted what experts say is clear: The virus is rapidly moving inland and westward to areas like Sichuan province, China's largest pork-producing region.

'I've never seen anything like it. No family was left untouched,' said Mr Ding Shurong, a 45-year-old farmer who lost two-thirds of his pigs in a village near here.

No one knows for sure how many of China's 500 million pigs have been infected. The government says officially that about 165,000 pigs have contracted the virus this year.

But in a country that, on average, loses 25 million pigs a year to disease, few believe the figures.

In part, the scepticism comes from the fact that pork prices have skyrocketed 85 per cent in the past year - an increase that, discounting other factors, suggests the losses from disease are more widespread than Beijing admits.

And there are other signs. Field experts are reporting widespread disease outbreaks. Fear among pig farmers that their livestock will contract the disease has triggered panic selling.

And the government and media here have issued alarming reports that farmers are selling diseased or infected pigs to illegal slaughterhouses, which could pose food safety problems.

International health experts are already calling this one of the worst disease outbreaks to hit Asia's livestock industry, and they fear that the rapidly mutating pathogens could spread to neighbouring countries, igniting a worldwide epidemic that could affect pork supplies everywhere.

A similar virus has already been detected in neighbouring Vietnam and Myanmar, and health experts are trying to determine whether it came from China.

NEW YORK TIMES