China’s pig cull could benefit KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) beef and chicken farmers as pork prices soar and China hoovers up available pork products resulting in shortages of breakfast staples such as bacon and pork sausages.

While the discussion about African swine fever has largely focused on China, the likes of Vietnam are also reeling from its effects. The Vietnamese authorities are now asking farmers to diversify away from pork to other livestock – a difficult task, I imagine, for a nation that is among the world’s top ten highest per capita pork consumers.

If there was ever a time where incentives could help reduce the spread of animal disease in South Africa, it is probably now. Since April 2019 there have been 14 reported outbreaks of African swine fever, all of the cases are in various areas of the North West, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and the Free State.

Weaner calf prices are lower, amid FMD uncertainty and lower demand.

If you’re like me and you thought that pigs were only for human consumption, you were wrong.

The aggressive capacity expansion of large-scale farms in 2020 has driven an estimated increase in slaughter pigs for China.

Long before COVID-19 became a household word—in 1946, to be precise—veterinary researchers at Purdue University reported that something invading the guts of young pigs was causing diarrhea, vomiting, and weight loss, ultimately killing most of them.

Today’s pig farms must use technology in harmony with human inputs if the business is going to succeed and be profitable.

In the background of the looming oversupply crisis, Russian pig farmers need to meet at least 50% of their internal demand in grain in order to remain profitable in 2025, a forecast by the Russian Union of pork producers (RUPP) suggested.