H7N9 Epidemic Continues Fermenting in China

By CnAgri2014-01-20 09:43:49 Print

Since January in 2014, the H7N9 human cases increased sharply in China mainland. According to BOABC’s statistics, totally 26 cases were diagnosed by Jan. 13th in 2014. For details, it was 10 in Guangdong, 7 in Zhejiang, 3 in Shanghai, 3 in Hong Kong, 2 in Jiangsu and 1 in Fujian. Besides, 5 new cases were added in Guangdong and Zhejiang and 1 in Guizhou. It reflects that avian flu continues fermenting in China and it is grimmer for epidemic prevention.

Two differences were noted by BOABC of this N7N9 outbreak and that in April 2013: firstly, the outbreak concentrated in Guangdong and Zhejiang instead of spreading to many areas like that in April 2013, when the epidemic was not serious due to high temperature in Guangdong; secondly, attitude of competent departments towards H7N9 was changed. They were more reasonable towards H7N9. Government and industry associations paid more attention to public opinion guidance and were more circumspect in releasing controlling policy. Those policies that easily cause consumer’s panic were barely noted, such as "No chickens / chicks circulation" and “Closing live poultry trading market by large scales”. For example, Shanghai will close live poultry trading market from Jan. 31 to April, which, however, was decided early and has nothing to do with this outbreak of H7N9. In China, only Hainnan published relevant policy, which was to prohibit live poultry delivering to Hainan since Jan. 8th.

In BOABC’s opinion, this H7B9 may become the last straw of overwhelming some broiler enterprises. Since it is peak season for consumption of broiler and chicken, many poultry enterprises expect to recoup losses in the year end after suffering from serious H7N9 in April 2013, but the new outbreak once again destroys their hope of recovery. Large enterprises can still cope with the strike by reducing production and with strong capital supports, but for small enterprises, it will be more difficult to recover once the capital chain breaks. With fermenting of H7N9, BOABC predicts that China poultry industry will see a deep shuffle in 2014.

From “China Livestock and Feed Market Weekly Report”