Page 47 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 19

Food Health

small farmers. evade control measures. Why would
corporations agree to vaccinate their
The big meat corporations do not pigs when ASF is proving to be so
seem to have much interest in a vac- good for their bottom lines?
cine anyways. They worry that the
use of vaccines on their farms and Vaccine or no vaccine, ASF is now
in their contract farming operations firmly entrenched in the global
would be costly and could mess with pork industry and it will continue to
the ASF-free status they require for spread. If the current approach to
exports, since, with some of the the disease promoted by the FAO,
vaccine types, it would be difficult the OIE and governments, in close
to determine if traces of ASF found coordination with corporations, is
in pork are from the vaccines or not challenged, ASF will annihilate
the disease. In China, companies small-scale traditional pig farming--
experimenting with illicit vaccines and all of the biodiversity, culture
ended up spawning a new variant and local economies that it sustains,
of ASF that is less lethal and thus and replace it with factory farms.
more prone to escape detection and

What are ASF-free compartments and zones?

Corporations and governments are preparing for a new normal in which ASF is a
constant threat and for many countries, a constant presence. Such a situation, given
the immediate bans imposed on pork imports from ASF countries, could be hugely
disruptive for global pork companies, which have their operations concentrated in
the large surplus pork producing countries. So, to keep the exports flowing, even in
times of ASF outbreaks, corporations are working with the OIE, FAO, and the big
pork exporting countries, such as the US, Canada, France, China and Russia, to get
global acceptance for exports from “zones” or “compartments” that can be consid-
ered ASF-free, even with ASF in the country.

Zones are territories where all farms have to abide by the same “standard of bi-
osecurity” and the movement of pigs and presence of diseases is supposed to be
heavily monitored, making it difficult if not illegal for small farms and small scale
meat processors to operate in these areas. Several exporting countries have already
signed deals with importers to get their zone plans recognised so that pork from
ASF-free “zones’ can continue to be exported in case of an ASF outbreak elsewhere
in the country. Canada has mutual ASF zone deals with the EU and the US, and an
export agreement with Singapore, as does Australia. France is said to have recently
concluded an agreement with China to have its zone plan recognised, but Germany,
which has ASF within its territory, has struggled to do the same.

Zones, however, are just a stepping stone to what the big meat companies are really
after-- global recognition of compartments. A compartment, according to the
recently developed OIE guidelines, is a population of animals contained in one or
more establishments with a specific animal health status, maintained under a defined
biosecurity management system that separates it from other animal populations. It is
essentially a meat corporation’s vertically integrated production system, in which all
of its various farms, contract suppliers and meat plants are recognised as one “com-
partment” adhering to a set of biosecurity practices that are supposed to keep ASF
outside of its operations. A corporation’s ASF-free compartment could continue
to export pork even if it has farms or a meat processing plant in an ASF-infected
territory.

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