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 here
and here.
