Banning kitchen waste feeding of pigs: kitchen waste may become a transmission route for African swine fever virus
If the African swine fever virus enters China, then kitchen waste is also a very risky transmission route. Let's take a look below.
If the African swine fever virus enters China, kitchen waste is absolutely a high-risk route, but at present, after taking stock, the Council of Agriculture has successively grasped the list of kitchen waste pig farmers. In the first stage, it has already taken the lead in requiring 66 pig farmers without kitchen waste cooking equipment to transition to raising pigs with feed or to leave the livestock industry. Now it is handling the second stage, that is, 1,155 kitchen waste pig farmers with equipment must pass inspection by environmental protection units within one week, otherwise they must likewise apply before March 31 to transition to feed-based pig farming, or choose to leave the livestock industry.
As for the remaining 357 kitchen waste pig farms listed and regulated by environmental protection units, because their scale is generally rather large and they are legal operators, the requirement now is that agricultural administration and environmental protection units conduct on-site inspections every day to confirm that these operators have truly met the cooking standards. Huang Jincheng emphasized that these three stages of control are already the most appropriate approach at present. In the face of the African swine fever epidemic and the transition of kitchen waste pig farmers, "it cannot be handled only from a zero-or-one viewpoint," and veterinary experts from major colleges also believe that this method has already reduced the risk to the lowest level.
Xu Rongbin, head of the Animal Epidemic Prevention Division of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, added that kitchen waste is not merely a problem for environmental protection units. If kitchen waste feeding of pigs is rashly banned, and household or restaurant kitchen waste has nowhere to go and is dumped into ditches or large drainage channels without proper recycling, then if rats, cats, and dogs go to eat it, this will instead accelerate the risk of virus transmission. The industry is in this together, and everyone should consider the future of the overall pig farming industry as a whole.
Pig Farming Youth Alliance: still does not rule out going north to protest on the 17th
At the scene, a feed-based pig farmer also offered a practical suggestion. He said that at present, pig intestines, duck intestines, and other offal from some slaughterhouses after slaughtering also flow into kitchen waste pig farming for reuse. If such waste is contaminated, it also carries the risk of spreading the virus. He called on the government to guide operators to increase as much as possible the proportion of plant-based materials in kitchen waste contents, such as distillers' grains, to reduce the possibility of high-risk foods flowing into kitchen waste for reuse. Huang Jincheng said he would take the suggestion back to discuss with the Environmental Protection Administration.
At the end of the forum, the Taiwan Pig Farming Youth Alliance handed a petition to Huang Jincheng, once again calling on the government to ban kitchen waste feeding of pigs comprehensively as soon as possible. Alliance founder Liu Zhiwei emphasized that because the Council of Agriculture had previously said that if an African swine fever outbreak occurred in Taiwan, China, kitchen waste feeding of pigs would have to be banned, this meant the government was prepared. If the Council of Agriculture delays in responding on when the current 357 legal kitchen waste pig farms will be phased out, pig farmers still do not rule out going north to protest on the 17th.