LARGE-SCALE hog farms in China that survived the world’s worst animal disease outbreak are expanding their herds, driving a recovery in sow numbers as early as next year, a pig conference heard.

The restocking of industrial-scale farms will result in a shift in hog production in the world’s largest pork-consuming nation, said Qiu Huaji, head of swine infectious diseases with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ Harbin Veterinary Research Institute. Their scale-up will lead to greater improvement in measures to protect pigs from African swine fever.

“The disease will cause an industrywide shuffle, forcing breeders to boost biosecurity and accelerating the expansion of large-scale farms,” Qiu told a conference on African swine fever in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

Muyuan Foodstuff Co., which raises pigs and supplies livestock feed, expects to have 1.3 million sows by the end of 2019 after rebuilding its herd and expanding its animal-feed and slaughtering operations. Net income more than tripled to 1.54 billion yuan (US$217 million) in the third quarter, Muyuan reported this month.

The company, based in Nanyang, Henan, has implemented measures to mitigate disease threats, chairman Qin Yinglin told the conference. “We are confident that African swine fever virus can be eradicated on large farms in China and that a vaccine isn’t necessary,” he said without elaborating.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released guidelines last month for the restocking of African swine fever-affected farms.

New Hope Liuhe Co., which raises pigs and supplies 15 million tons of animal feed to 250,000 users annually, aims to have the capacity to breed 25 million pigs in 2022, chairman Liu Yonghao said last month.

(SD-Agencies)