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Pig Disease in China Worries the World
Lo Jinyuan's sows gave birth to stillborn piglets. "Before we knew something was wrong, they were all dead," he said.
(Photos By Ariana Eunjung Cha -- The Washington Post)
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At the end of August, China launched an aggressive public education campaign about the pig disease, printing 600,000 handbooks about prevention and control of blue ear disease and dispatching 251 experts to disease-stricken areas. On Aug. 30, it passed laws that would provide for harsher punishments for animal owners who do not comply with vaccination policies and who did not report possible outbreaks.
In the countryside around Foshan, the brick pig stalls that line the roads are empty, and so now are the houses. Many of the farmers who used to raise pigs have left to try to find jobs in factories.
Those who remain rarely leave their homes for fear of carrying the disease and inadvertently transmitting it to their pigs. Many said they did not know the name of the disease that has affected the pigs and that much of what they had heard may be superstition.
Since May, Xie Hanquan, 53, has barricaded himself and his family inside his pig farm. His 200 pigs are healthy, but he's worried that his neighbors may bring the disease to his farm. When he has to go out to get food and supplies, he makes sure to change his clothes and douse his shoes and body with disinfectant alcohol before opening the metal fence to his home. "Everyone is afraid now," Xie said.
Two pigs belonging to Lo, the farmer from Shandi, gave birth to stillborn babies in June.
Shortly afterward, the two pigs died. Lo said he threw the bodies in a nearby river. He said it was common practice.
On a recent weekday afternoon, a single bloated, purple pig carcass was floating near the southern bank.
Researcher Crissie Ding contributed to this report.
