Long Road Toward Biosecurity in China

The Veterinary Counsel with the Canadian Pork Council says the Chinese pork sector is in the very early stages of building biosecurity

by Bruce Cochrane – FarmScape Online

In an effort to help China cope with African Swine Fever health professionals from Canada have been providing advice on biosecurity.

Dr. Egan Brockhoff, the Veterinary Counsel with the Canadian Pork Council, says biosecurity in China ranges from sites that have no biosecurity to sites that have very complex biosecurity but, because the sector has been very much focused on growth and commerce, you have very low health status across all of the sector.

“You have just the very beginnings of biosecurity transport occurring there”

“It’s difficult to buy if not impossible to buy animals that are free of Classical Swine Fever and PRRS virus and Mycoplasma and so biosecurity is complicated.

“Building these very large systems they’re pulling in genetic replacements from multiple different sources and so you still have a lot mixing of animals from different genetics but also significantly different health statuses.

“You have just the very beginnings of biosecurity transport occurring there.

“There’s very few, there’s hardly enough to mention truck washes capable of proper clean and disinfection.

“So although you’ve got some farms that do a good job at controlling people movement, they don’t always have systems in place to manage animal and transport movement and certainly not feed and seed risks as well.

“Even the simple things like buying high health semen are extremely difficult to do within China.”

Dr. Brockhoff says the focus of his time in China has been to continue to make marginal gains in biosecurity and try to reduce some of those disease pressures.

He says we’re in the very early stages of opening up the biosecurity culture to that market and there’s a long way to go.

Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork