African swine fever continues to spread

May 28, 2019

Staff Writer

Farms.com

African swine fever (ASF) is still burning its way through China’s swine herds.

Over the past week, ASF has killed 87 pigs in three locations. The Chinese government is executing its ASF Epidemic Emergency Implementation Plan in a continued effort to contain the outbreaks, a May 21 Chinese state release says.

Since the China Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs confirmed its first ASF outbreak in Liaoning Province on Aug. 3, 2018, officials have detected 133 ASF outbreaks in 32 regions. In total, officials and farmers have culled 1,129,000 pigs to try to prevent further spread of the disease, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports.

ASF hasn’t made its way into North America, but the U.S. and Canada have developed collaborative strategies to handle a potential outbreak.

On May 24, the U.S. and Canada’s chief veterinary officers announced that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the United States Department of Agriculture agreed to allow “safe trade” to continue in the event ASF is reported in either country.

The two nations modified their export certificates to allow trade of live swine, swine semen, pet food, animal by-products and meat to continue in approved disease-free zones in the event of an ASF outbreak.

In the U.S., pork producers marketed over 120 million hogs in 2017, which provided total cash receipts of more than US$20 billion. Canadian pork producers saw almost C$4.5 billion in cash receipts that same year.

At a Feb. 21 meeting, the U.S., Canada and Mexico agreed to work together to prevent infected pork from crossing their respective borders.

So far, the partnership has proved successful.

Farms.com has reached out to the Chinese government for further comment.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.