African Swine Fever outbreak spreads across multiple Chinese provinces

An outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) is spreading across multiple regions in China, including Jiangxi, Guangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, and Fujian provinces. Reports from local farmers indicate that the disease is causing significant livestock losses, with some acute cases reaching a near 100% fatality rate.

In Jiangxi Province, the impact is particularly severe, affecting approximately 80% of small-scale farmers and 40% of large-scale pig farms. Farmers have reported that even pigs that have been vaccinated are falling ill, leading to questions regarding the effectiveness of current vaccines.

The outbreak has triggered market instability. While some areas face a surplus of pigs being sold off quickly, leading to price drops, others face a total lack of buyers due to panic. In some instances, farmers are forced to sell sick pigs at extremely low prices or face the high costs of disposing of carcasses. There are also reports of diseased or culled pigs being diverted to processing plants for meat products like sausages.