China’s ag ministry confirms 11 ASF outbreaks in latest statement

Officials from China’s agriculture ministry told reporters that China’s use of wheat in pig feed is expected to remain high and that the country has had 11 African swine fever outbreaks this year.

Reuters reports that China’s use of wheat in feed is expected to stay high as the grain retains a price advantage over corn, agriculture ministry official Song Danyang said on Tuesday 20 July.

Wheat prices in the central province of Henan, a top producer of the grain, were 2,520 yuan ($388.57) per tonne on Monday 19 July, outstripping the price of corn at 2,910 yuan.

China’s 11 outbreaks of African swine fever this year prompted it to cull 2,216 pigs, said Xin Guochang, of the husbandry bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

There was a risk of the virus spreading from overseas, he added.

“The control and prevention situation is still severe and complicated,” Xin said of the disease that reached China in August 2018, and warning that the risk of its rebound persisted.

China’s herd of 439 million pigs at the end of June was 99.4% of the level at the end of 2017, said ministry official Zeng Yande, who heads development and planning, as the country rebuilds the herd decimated by the African swine fever.

The sow herd of 456.4 million at June-end was up 102% on the end-2017 figure.

($1=6.4854 Chinese yuan renminbi).

Pig

Tags: wheat, Feed, ASF, Pigs, China