Vietnam Developing African Swine Fever (ASF) Vaccine
- Vietnam claims it has had initial success in creating a vaccine to fight African swine fever (ASF).
- ASF was first detected in Vietnam in February and has spread to farms in 61 of the country's 63 provinces.
- The vaccine, developed at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, has been tested in its laboratory and at three farms in northern Vietnam.
- The complex nature of the virus have so far hindered global efforts to develop a vaccine against the disease.
- ASF is harmless to humans but deadly to pigs.
- In Vietnam's initial trials, 31 out of 33 pigs injected with the test vaccine are still healthy after receiving two shots over a period of months.
- Experts on vaccines and ASF remain skeptical over the claims and said there needed to be much more research to prove the viability of any purported vaccine.
- What It Means For The US Farmer: At FBN we believe that any progress made toward developing a vaccine to fight ASF would have immense value in the global hog business. While ASF does not currently have a vaccine, it seems like the progress made in Vietnam can be viewed as a large step forward for the global hog industry.
Mercosur and EU Sign Trade Deal; Benefits Agriculture and Protein
- The Latin American trade bloc and the Europeans will lower tariffs on a range of agricultural commodities from the Mercosur trade bloc, including beef, poultry, pork, sugar, cheese and honey.
- Mercosur is composed of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
- The EU has agreed to reduce barriers on 82% of agricultural imports from the Mercosur bloc over a transition period of up to 10 years.
- The EU also offered more partial commitments including quotas for more sensitive farm products.
- The EU imports of 99,000 tonnes from Mercosur a year, with a tariff of 7.5%.
- The agreement also allows 180,000 tonnes of poultry imports from Mercosur "duty free," along with 25,000 tonnes of pork at a duty of 83 euros per tonne.
- What It Means For The US Farmer: At FBN we believe that lowering tariffs and encouraging open and free trade is a positive. While the U.S. has a robust beef export program to the EU we believe that the recent trade deal between the EU and Mercosur can be a negative for the U.S. protein exports.
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