It rounds out the 12-year Zodiac cycle, and those born during the year are said to be successful, resilient, and friendly people.
Less auspicious for this year is the African swine fever epidemic now spreading across China and Southeast Asia. It has already resulted in the deaths of more than 1.2 million pigs in China, plus another two million recently culled in Vietnam. Ultimately, up to 140 million pigs may succumb to the disease or be killed to control it and protect China’s pork industry — the world’s largest — from collapse. That’s about one-fifth of the nearly 700 million pigs raised for slaughter in China each year (and more than all the pigs killed for food in the U.S. annually).
This is neither the first nor probably the last zoonotic epidemic to occur. (A zoonotic disease is one that can be transmitted from animals to people.) Blue ear disease ravaged pigs in China in 2007, and the SARS virus in 2002 that affected the People’s Republic and 25 other countries likely originated in animals.
So far, the swine fever has not jumped the species barrier to humans, but there’s little reason for complacency. Reports have been circulating recently of pigs in China being buried or even burned alive as part of desperate efforts to contain the disease. We’ve also had recurring outbreaks of avian flu, including some strains that can infect humans. The global pandemic of 1918 that killed more than 50 million people began in birds, and epidemiologists believe we’re overdue for a similar catastrophe.
Zoonotic diseases are among the many risks posed by industrial animal agriculture, and these risks need to be addressed. They provide more evidence that the factory farming system needs to be radically reformed.