Saving pigs would also benefit people
A RESEARCH TEAM from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have reportedly isolated a strain of the African swine fever virus that has spread across China. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:
The disease, which causes severe hemorrhaging of the internal organs, was first identified a century ago in Kenya. It is particularly deadly to pigs because it spreads easily and there is no treatment or vaccine for it.
It is estimated that about 1.2 million pigs have been culled in China because of the outbreak, which has put thousands of small producers out of business. The scale of the outbreak is unprecedented as China accounts for around half the pigs in the world, and thousands of farmers raise and depend on pigs for their livelihoods.
