In recent days at Banteay Meanmer Times reporters who were on-site at several border crossings along the Cambodia – Thailand border in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, and Oddar Meanchey provinces revealed that trailer loads of hogs are crossing the border and one official, speaking on condition of anonymity said an average of 100 trucks cross into Cambodia daily.

Pang Vanna Seth, director of Banteay Meanchey province’s Agriculture Department, told Khmer Times that Banteay Meanchey prohibits the export and import of pigs from Thailand to Cambodia and that they have deployed officials to protect the frontline of the border and to prevent African Swine Fever (ASF).
chey, African swine flu was found in pigs imported illegally from Thailand via corridor border gates in the province, and 30 pigs were seized by expert officials, according to a statement from the ministry’s General Department of Animal Health and Production (GDAHP) issued Tuesday.

But Khmer Times in an onsite investigation discovered that the seizure of 30 pigs was a drop in the ocean as up to 100 trucks of pigs cross the border through legal checkpoints daily.

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon has denied recent accusations of widespread market fixing and price collusion within the Thai-Cambodian pig import industry.

Sakhon claims that everything the ministry has done has been with the aim of preventing anarchic import practices which could lead to a spread of diseases in Cambodia.

Recently, a group of Thai traders claiming to be a company that imports pigs to Cambodia gathered in protest while holding up a banner with a picture of Prime Minister HE and requesting his intervention. They said that in recent days they have not been able to import pigs into Cambodia from Thailand due to tightened restrictions.

When the deadly virus was first discovered in China, authorities told the people in the know to keep quiet or else. Fearing reprisal from Beijing, local officials failed to order tests to confirm outbreaks and didn’t properly warn the public as the pathogen spread death around the country.
All this happened long before China’s coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives worldwide in less than three months. For the past 19 months, secrecy has hobbled the nation’s response to African swine fever, an epidemic that has killed millions of pigs. A Reuters examination has found that swine fever’s swift spread was made possible by China’s systemic under-reporting of outbreaks. And even today, bureaucratic secrecy and perverse policy incentives continue undermining Chinese efforts to defeat one of the worst livestock epidemics in modern history.

Beijing’s secretive early handling of the coronavirus epidemic has troubling similarities to its missteps in containing African swine fever, but with the far higher stakes of a human infection.

AndyKK wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 3:46 pm New African swine fever variants kill millions of pigs in China, devastating herd rebuild plan

A second wave of African swine fever (ASF) is estimated to have killed as many as eight million pigs in China since the start of the year, derailing the country's plans to rebuild its national herd.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-04/ ... a/13208048

[Independent meat analyst Simon] Mr Quilty said there were three known strains of African swine fever, two of which were understood to have emerged from illegal vaccines, and that there were no signs of countries being able slow the spread.

He said China's push towards building super complexes – or so-called pig hotels – was also understood to have been impacted.

The ramifications for global meat prices would be significant, Mr Quilty said.

"There's no doubt that meat prices will go higher, be it pork, beef or chicken," he said.

nemo wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 3:39 pm ASF is not "Swine Flu". Not contagious to humans.