Tochigi Prefecture, located in Japan's capital area, recently confirmed that the first swine fever epidemic in Japan in 2024 has occurred, and all pigs raised in the pig farm where the incident occurred are currently being culled.
Li Qianwen, special correspondent of the Financial Channel: Tochigi City in the southern part of Tochigi Prefecture in Japan is about two hours' drive from Tokyo. After the outbreak of the first case of swine fever in Japan in 2024, in order to prevent the spread of livestock infectious diseases, disinfection points and staff are on duty 24 hours a day. Wearing protective clothing, the staff disinfected the vehicles involved, spraying disinfectant all over the vehicle, and carefully wiping down the windows and door handles. The reporter learned that yesterday (18th), about 30 vehicles came to disinfect at a disinfection point one day.
Tochigi Prefecture ** said that the pig farm reported that there was a loss of appetite of piglets on the evening of the 15th, and after inspection, it was confirmed that there was a swine fever outbreak, which was also the second swine fever outbreak in Tochigi County after about a year and a half. All the approximately 1,100 pigs raised at the farm where the incident occurred are being culled. Before the epidemic was confirmed, all 26 live pigs that had just been shipped had been recovered and culled. A total of 183 local people were mobilized to participate in the operation, and the cleaning and sanitizing of pig farms is expected to last for two weeks, and the reporter learned that 60% of the culling work has been completed.
In 2022, Tochigi Prefecture experienced the largest swine fever outbreak in Japan, with more than 56,000 heads culled. Because of this situation, Tochigi Prefecture has taken relatively strict measures to prevent swine fever, including on-site inspections of all pig farms and requiring the installation of protective nets to prevent birds from becoming intermediaries for transmission.
According to Japanese media reports, the pig farm was found to meet the management standards during the inspection in December last year, and the piglets were also vaccinated in the first half of this month, but they still failed to withstand the epidemic, which also caused concern among local pig farmers.
In terms of the market, although the swine fever epidemic has not yet had an impact on Japanese pork**, due to the proximity of Tochigi Prefecture to the huge consumer market of Tokyo, it is also one of the largest pig prefectures in Japan, and if the epidemic expands, it may bring fluctuations to the market**.
*Please specify CCTV Finance.
Editor: Pan Xu.