A 12-storey pig farm: has China found the way to tackle animal disease?
Michael Standaert and Francesco De Augustinis
“Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd”.
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But intensive farming systems like the multistorey Yaji site can still be a breeding ground for disease. “A concentrated farming operation creates a condition for cross infection among the pigs or other livestock animals,” says Peter Li, associate professor of east Asian politics at the University of Houston-Downtown in the US and a China policy specialist for the Humane Society International.
And the effect on the welfare of the animals that live in these spaces is still very poorly understood. Li believes that limited space, concrete floors, and inability to root and display other natural behaviours, and a perennial sense of frustration, can lead to a decline in the pigs immunity.
“These farms are very health-focused, and there’s a longstanding belief that that good health equals good welfare. But actually that is not always the case,” says Jeremy Marchant-Forde, research animal scientist with the US Department of Agriculture. “Welfare within that type of environment, a very intensive system, is very different to typical UK outdoor production, for example. It may well have some advantages with regard to health. But at the end of the day you couldn’t call this high welfare. There is not a lot of room or environmental complexity here just to let pigs be pigs.”
Jeff Zhou, chief representative at Compassion in World Farming in Beijing, says progress is being made with animal welfare issues but that the issue is still only understood “at a low level” in China.
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Do you dare to change 'pigs' for 'humans'?
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