BloombergHog farms found using illegal vaccines would be punished under China’s intensified efforts to arrest its African swine fever crisis. “Farms that use these vaccines won’t be able to effectively prevent the disease and they could spread it further — something we take seriously,” Yang said. A ministry hotline for citizens to report outbreak “irregularities” would offer cash rewards of 30,000 yuan. Some domestic research institutes are conducting studies on vaccines, but these remain at the preclinical stage, while the safety of genetically modified organisms is evaluated, Yang said. Unauthorized experimental vaccines have been used to immunize millions of hogs in China, creating “chaos” because of their varying levels of efficacy, Caixin reported last week.

Source: Taipei Times November 22, 2019 16:07 UTC