Vietnam has a vaccine for African swine fever (ASF). China does not. ASF is a virus that spreads quickly and causes hemorrhaging and death in most infected pigs. ASF first jumped from Europe to China in 2018. Then the virus jumped over the Chinese border to Vietnam within months after it had reached China. Swine herds were decimated in both countries. Scientists in Europe and elsewhere had been working on ASF vaccines for many years. Yet by early 2020--about 18 months after the country's first outbreaks--China's Harbin Veterinary Institute said it had developed a vaccine for ASF that was safe and effective. The vaccine was a live attenuated vaccine created by deleting genes from the virus. The Institute bragged on its web site: “The vaccine is currently the most promising vaccine for industrial application and will provide important technical means for the effective prevention and control of African Swine Fever in China and related countries.” Four mo...
Retired USDA economist Fred Gale peers through the "dim sums" of puzzling data to provide insight about China's agricultural markets in bite-size pieces like Chinese "dim sum" snacks. See the Archive and Labels for posts on various topics going back to 2008.