The Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday denied media reports
that blue-ear pig disease was making a comeback in south China's
Guangdong and Sichuan provinces, leading to pork price rises.
An official in charge of the Veterinary Bureau under the
ministry said the situation on the Chinese mainland was "stable" as
Chinese vaccines were proved to be "safe and effective". So far, no
vaccinated pigs had contracted the disease.
The official said some media reports had blamed ineffective
vaccination for spread of the disease in Huizhou of Guangdong
Province and Sichuan Province, saying Sichuan was even compelled to
deliver pigs from neighboring provinces to meet market demand.
"So far there has been no case of blue-ear pig disease reported
in Sichuan," he said, adding the province shipped out 958,300 tons
of pork in the first ten months, exceedinging last year's
total.
He admitted Guangdong detected three cases, but had kept the
situation under control. In the last two months, none of the
province's pig farms reported infections. Huizhou had no reported
infections since the beginning of the year.
Thanks to the vaccine jointly developed by the Chinese Center
for Animal Disease Control and Prevention and the China Institute
of Veterinary Drug Control, the number of infected pigs had
declined sharply since July. In December, only 466 pigs were
confirmed to be infected in southwestern Guizhou Province and
northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
In late October, police arrested the producers of fake vaccines
that had allegedly caused an outbreak of the disease, also known as
as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, in central Hubei
Province, which led to losses of almost 1 million yuan (133,690
U.S. dollars).
(Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2007)