Fake Pig Vaccine Case in China

Last week police in China's Zhejiang Province announced their arrest of a gang selling pig vaccines made of colored water. The fake pig vaccine case shows that braggadocio about progress in developing a new vaccine for African swine fever and use of artificial intelligence technology in pig-farming masks dysfunction at the grass roots level.

Local police in Jiaxing City (also the source of 10,000 dead pigs that floated into Shanghai in 2013) said the 14-person gang manufactured fake animal vaccines at workshops in Henan Province. The vaccines were little more than colored water with no efficacy in preventing disease, authorities said. False labels were affixed to vaccines that were marketed to customers all over China using internet and social media. Customers were mainly pet shops and veterinary stations, police said. A raid of the facilities in Henan reportedly discovered 58,000 bottles with labels from 16 companies and 270 kinds of vaccine as well as many more empty bottles, labels, instructions, cell phones, and sales books.

Police say a person named Zhou bought 100 bottles of foot-and-mouth disease vaccine in September-October 2017 and then sold the vaccines to a swine-producing cooperative. The farmers' pigs died, causing losses reported at RMB 500,000. The company whose name was on the vaccine label claimed the vaccines were fakes. Police formed a task force and somehow uncovered the gang in Henan.

Some observations:

• This fake vaccine producer apparently continued to operate despite annual Ministry of Agriculture action plans to crack down on fake vaccines since at least 2015.
• Subsidized (mandatory) vaccines for foot and mouth disease are no. 33 in a list of 37 agricultural support policies released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs this week--a policy that was initiated 12 years ago to address severe disease problems. There is supposed to be a system of approved manufacturers and distribution through government-run veterinary stations to supply foot-and-mouth vaccines to farmers. Yet farmers apparently still buy vaccines through acquaintances and cheap online vendors.
• The death of unvaccinated pigs suggests that foot-and-mouth disease is endemic. Chinese authorities control diseases with vaccines but they do not eradicate them.
• China has never had significant formal education to train professional practicing veterinarians. The shortage of veterinarians in China has been estimated at 1 million. A propaganda article last month discussing measures being taken to shore up surveillance of African swine fever in Shandong Province includes resolve to address the shortage of official veterinarians. Today, veterinarians can make more money treating dogs and cats in cities.

Security Times recently quoted a Chinese pork industry investment analyst who said, "Although the country already has technology to detect African swine fever, the market doesn’t give it much credibility. [In my area] there are cost and reliability factors."