Posted April 9, 2014
China has imposed tougher restrictions for imports of live pigs from the U.S., citing concerns about the deadly porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv), according to an article by the Wall Street Journal available here.
PEDv has killed over four million pigs nationwide since April 2013. PEDv has a mortality rate of nearly 100 percent for piglets under two weeks old. Currently, no vaccine or treatment for the virus exists.
China asked the USDA to “conduct testing and provide certification that live hogs come from herds that are free of” PEDv.
A spokesman for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said the agency “is both capable and willing” to comply with China’s new requirement for testing and certification. The government will “continue to work with the Chinese” to try to eliminate the requirement.
Bloomberg reports that China’s hog-farming industry already deals will losses and price declines due to oversupply and would be damaged by an outbreak of PEDv, said Ma Chuang, a partner at animal husbandry researcher Beijing Boyar Communications Co.
USDA’s quarterly report released on March 28 shows that the virus is still spreading, but at a lower rate, according to an article by University of Missouri Extension available here. Missouri pork producers are increasing biosecurity measures to slow the spread of the virus.
For more information on international trade and biosecurity, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website hereand here.
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