African Swine Fever Develops Into Worldwide Crisis
AFRICAN SWINE FEVER (ASF) – As the Christmas season is closing in, bad news develops as the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) became a worldwide crisis.
The Philippines has been suffering from African swine fever for a couple of months now. However, the Department of Health claims that the virus isn’t harmful to humans.
But, the crisis brought about by the virus isn’t only affecting the Philippines but the whole world. Because of ASF, global prices of pork exports around the world are increasing exponentially.
This is mostly because of the situation in China. There, half of the world’s population lives and over 100 million pigs were already disposed because of ASF.
Based on reports from Philstar, the virus has now been identified in 50 countries. These include Poland, Russia, South Korea, and the Philippines.
Rabobank, a financial services company that specializes in food and agriculture, predicted that China would lose between 20% to 70% of its pig population. This is projected to be around 350 million pigs.
Although the virus doesn’t have any harmful effects on humans, it still has a grave impact on the economy. Dr. Mark Schipp, VP of the OIE said the ASF was the biggest threat to commercial livestock of our generation.
In the Philippines, the Bureau of Animal Industry reported that three meat samples they were testing were positive for ASF. They used real-time polymerase chain reaction tests.
The products that were ASF positive were hotdogs, longganisa, and tocino. Reports from the Bureau mentioned that Mekeni Food Corps products were found to have the virus.
However, the company had already voluntarily recalled their products. But, Purefoods, one of the biggest manufacturers stated their products are all ASF free.
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