ASF causes drop in world meat production

MANILA, Philippines — African swine fever (ASF) has caused world meat production to slump for the first time in 20 years, the United Nations agriculture agency said.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s latest “Food Outlook” published on Thursday, the current failure to curb the disease is expected to strain global markets, with no vaccine currently available.

ASF pushed up prices for pig meat and pork products earlier this year, as China’s first reported outbreak in 2018 took hold.

Though ASF is harmless to humans, in pigs it causes high fever, internal bleeding, and almost always kills the animal within weeks. 

It spreads easily between domestic and wild pigs through direct contact, the feeding of contaminated food, and materials that come into contact with the animals including shoes, clothes, vehicles and equipment.

Pork typically accounts for more than a third of worldwide meat output. Poultry accounts for 39 percent and bovine meat 21 percent. Global poultry production accounts for a larger share of all meat than pig meat.

World meat production is forecast at around 335 million tons in 2019, or one percent lower than in 2018. 

“This marks a departure from the stable growth trend recorded over the past two decades and indicates a sharper fall than anticipated in May, principally due to a deeper than earlier expected impact of African swine fever in China and its spread to several East Asian countries,” the report said. 

FAO said the spread of ASF across East and Southeast Asia is threatening the food security and livelihoods in the region, which rely on open pig farming.

Small-scale farmers account for a significant proportion of pig meat production in the vast region, and the outbreak is of particular concern for these producers, who may lack the expertise and funds necessary to protect their herds from the disease.

On FAO’s ASF situation update on the Philippines, ASF cases were reported in the provinces of Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and Cavite as well as Quezon City.

Since the Department of Agriculture confirmed the first ASF outbreak last July 25, some 22 areas in seven provinces/city on Luzon Island have been affected, while approximately 62,000 pigs have been culled.

FAO took note of actions taken by countries like the Philippines’ 1-7-10 protocol to manage, contain and control the spread of the disease with all pigs within one-kilometer radius of infected farms to be culled; limit animal movement and swine farms placed under strict surveillance and testing within a seven-kilometer radius; swine farms within a 10-kilometer radius required to submit a mandatory report on the disease. 

President Duterte and the Cabinet approved additional measures to contain and prevent the spread of ASF in Luzon including: lockdown of “ASF-infected zones” in Bulacan and Pampanga provinces to ensure movement control of pigs and pork products; from which people sell/buy/transport live pigs, slaughter ASF-infected pigs, and sell ASF contaminated pork products will be arrested/filed. 

Hand-carried sausage and other meat products from Luzon were seized at a port in Mindoro Island, and tested positive for ASF; two containers with pork and other meat products from China were stopped at a Manila port, which were declared to Customs as tomato paste and vermicelli. 

The ASF situation update in the Philippines reported more than 70,000 pigs have so far been killed.

FAO said the failure to curb the disease is being attributed to several factors. Firstly, many small-scale farmers have not put in place measures to adequately protect their herds from disease. Secondly, pigs on small farms are often fed with table scraps, or uncooked organic refuse, which may contain the virus. The cross-border trade of pigs, some of which may be contaminated, has also contributed to the prevalence of ASF.

“For these reasons, experts believe that the disease will inevitably spread further in the coming months, with far-reaching implications. These include a large decline in the number of farmed pigs, impacting the global market,” FAO said.

QC funds for ASF depleted

The Quezon City government, meanwhile, has exhausted its budget to address African swine fever and is in need of more funds as 10 areas are likely newly hit by the dreaded disease.

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said at least P6 million is needed to pay off hog raisers in 10 areas that are suspected to be infected with ASF.

“We have depleted our P15-million budget and there are still more to cull, including possibly in barangays that have yet to get official results of the blood samples but are already showing signs of ASF,” Belmonte told The STAR.

“We may still be able to scrape up some funds but we are praying hard that we can be included in those to be given assistance by the DA (Department of Agriculture),” she added.

According to the QC ASF validation team, there are 201 hogs in Sta. Lucia, 178 in UP campus, 172 in San Bartolome, 99 in Gulod, 91 in Nagkaisa Nayon, 77 in Bagbag, 28 in Fairview, 16 in Sta. Monica, 10 in Capri and seven in San Agustin.

Further, there 670 more hogs in Payatas that have yet to be culled. Payatas was among the first areas in Quezon City infected by ASF.

“These barangays have been inventoried and are all possibly infected. I asked my team how much more budget I need to find should the need to cull these pigs arise, plus there are some more in Payatas that have yet to be culled,” Belmonte said.

In total, 1,549 hogs are likely to be culled in the coming weeks and the QC government has set a conservative buffer on pigs that have yet to be inventoried.

Belmonte said the ASF team has estimated at least 2,000 hogs at P3,000 per head would be reimbursed owners.

“We already informed DA and the DA said we are included in the next batch. That should be enough for all the suspected as well as confirmed pigs. We just hope that it will not spread further,” Belmonte said.

She added that the city government cannot really say how much percentage of the total population have been infected with ASF.

“I cannot say because hog raising is illegal in HUCs (highly urbanized cities) so the government never regulated or kept count. And in fact, we did not realize we had so many hogs until we got ASF,” Belmonte said.

“Plus even when we did an inventory after I announced the gradual phase out of hog raising in compliance with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board provisions, the reported numbers given to me are not accurate,” she added.

The government earlier said it is releasing an initial P221 million as indemnity payment to hog raisers whose pigs were culled due to the outbreak of ASF.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar this forms part of the P1 billion contingency fund from the Office of the President. During the recent Cabinet meeting, President Duterte approved Dar’s request to use the remaining contingent fund of the OP for the indemnification of hog raisers.

The budget will also be used to designate cold storage areas in the ports of Manila, Subic, Batangas, Cebu and Davao for 100 percent monitoring of meat products entry.

Currently, the DA is giving P5,000 to every affected hog raiser. This is on top of the payment being given by the local government units.