Prices likely to remain higher until Spring Festival: experts
East China's Shandong Province temporarily shut down its live pig markets in a bid to cope with the spread of African swine fever (ASF), contributing to the country-wide market imbalance, which experts say is likely to continue until the end of next year's Spring Festival.
Shandong banned live pigs from cities affected by ASF from entering the province, and the ban will be lifted until all nearby provinces do so as well, according to a statement on the website of the Shandong animal husbandry and veterinary bureau.
For those who need to transport pigs from other regions, they are required to get an ASF qualification report from authorized laboratories, the statement added. The bureau also said live pigs should not be fed with kitchen waste.
Shandong is the first province to announce a shutdown of live pig markets in the country, caixin.com said.
Since August, ASF-infected cases had been found in 19 provinces, including Liaoning, Henan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Heilongjiang, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as of Monday.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said provinces which find ASF cases should close their live pig markets and prevent their pigs from entering other regions. News site cb.com.cn reported that about 70 percent of the country's live pig capacity cannot be dispatched across provinces.
Zhang Yuejing, an analyst at Beijing-based zhue.com.cn, a website specializing in pig industry news, told the Global Times on Monday that the closure of the live pig markets has led to higher prices of live pigs.
Live pigs went for 14.38 yuan ($2.1) a kilogram on Monday.
The most affected livestock farms were small in scale, Zhang said, adding that some larger farms that are lenient with hygiene supervision are also susceptible to ASF.
Zhang said "the possibility of ASF spreading cannot be ruled out, and pork prices will likely continue since October until the end of the Spring Festival is the peak season."
An inspection team from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs led by the deputy minister, Yu Kangzhen, conducted an inspection last week in Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Jilin along borders of Russia and China.
Wang Gongmin, the deputy head of the husbandry and veterinary bureau at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said ASF was transmitted from abroad since China has experienced such an outbreak.
Wang told the CNR in August that the virus can be transferred to China through international transportation of illegal smuggled meat. The ministry said it is investigating the source of the outbreak.
Experts reached by the Global Times said pigs are also likely to be affected by kitchen waste or while in transport.
ASF is a highly contagious, viral disease that infects pigs. It does not affect humans or other animals.
