Sunday, 8 September 2019

Pork Politics


Japan is facing an emerging outbreak of swine fever. It does not  seem to be a breaking news. Also, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary  Yoshihide Suga’s declaration is somehow obvious “In order to prevent  the disease from spreading further, the government will do its utmost by having the agriculture ministry and relevant local authorities cooperate for speedy and thorough implementation of quarantine measures”. What do you expect a Chief Cabinet Secretary  could state? Everything’s ok, isn’t it? Almost … Japanese farmers are calling for vaccination of livestock, but Japan's agriculture ministry has announced that “for the time being, they will contain the outbreak through early detection, culling harmed animals and disinfection”.  Yasuhiro Ozato, a senior vice farm minister, said, "We will seek to resolve this by sticking to hygiene control standards”. In fact, vaccinating pigs would prevent Japan from regaining its World Organization for Animal Health status as a CSF free country, preventing Japan's plan to develop pork exports.
To be sure, pigs are pigs and humans are humans,  yet it is not at all a reassuring news.

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