Animals farmed: swine fever, chick culling and trophy hunting

Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the webAnxiety about African swine fever is growing as it spreads rapidly in China, and also reaches Belgium. As we reported a couple of weeks ago, if it is detected in another major pork-producing country like Denmark, Germany, Spain or the US, "the pig mortality will be the least of our worries", according to US expert Dennis DiPietre. "The business disruption and profit losses from export cessation would range from big to staggering," he says. DiPietre fears that, within a year or two, "we will be engulfed in a worldwide pandemic". Interestingly, highly pathogenic avian influenza has also been picked up in wild birds in western Europe for the first time in several months. Continue reading...