美国国家公共电台 NPR Swine Fever Is Killing Vast Numbers Of Pigs In China

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

China is truly a superpower - of pork. It is home to half of all the pigs in the world. But right now a disease called African swine fever is sweeping¹ through Chinese hog² farms. And it's having ripple³ effects for farmers all over the world as NPR's Dan Charles reports.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE⁴: The swine fever epidemic⁵ in China and the rest of Southeast Asia began a year ago, and it's still spreading. Christine McCracken and her colleagues at the big financial firm Rabobank have been talking to their clients in China, companies in the pork business - trying to figure out how bad it is.

CHRISTINE MCCRACKEN: Every day, we hear of more outbreaks.

CHARLES: According to their latest estimate, African swine fever is killing⁶ off so many pigs that by the end of this year, China's production of pork could be cut in half.

MCCRACKEN: That's roughly, you know, 300 to 350 million pigs lost in China, which is, you know, almost a quarter of the world's pork supply.

CHARLES: Which I found stunning⁷. Should I be stunned⁸ by that?

MCCRACKEN: You should. It's a massive number.

CHARLES: African swine fever is not swine flu. This disease is harmless to humans. It can spread through contaminated pork products or the clothes of people working with infected pigs, not through the air. But the virus is really hard to get rid of, which Chinese farmers are finding out.

MCCRACKEN: They've had a hard time repopulating herds⁹. It's hard to decontaminate a facility in a short amount of time. Generally, it takes at least six months to sometimes three years to decontaminate a site.

CHARLES: McCracken says many Chinese farmers have slaughtered¹⁰ their herds early out of fear the animals might get infected, so there's still pork on the shelves. In the past month or so, consumers in China are starting to see the impact. Pork prices are rising. In fact, the impact is rippling¹¹ across the globe.

With fewer pigs, China's importing less soy meal to feed them. That alone has been enough to push down global prices of soybeans, which means less money for farmers in Brazil and the U.S. On the other hand, it's been good news for pork producers in the rest of the world. China is starting to import more pork, driving up prices. And McCracken says the epidemic is still going strong.

MCCRACKEN: It's really hard to see how this is going to end, though at some point, you know, they'll just be better, more biosecure facilities that have fewer chances of getting the virus.

CHARLES: Traditionally, almost half of the pigs in China came from small backyard operations, hundreds of thousands of them. Those farms, though, if they can't protect their animals from infection, may not survive.

Dan Charles, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF GOLD PANDA'S "I AM REAL PUNK")

1 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

2 hog   

n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占

参考例句：

• He is greedy like a hog.他像猪一样贪婪。
• Drivers who hog the road leave no room for other cars.那些占着路面的驾驶员一点余地都不留给其他车辆。

3 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

6 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

7 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

8 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

9 herds   

兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众

参考例句：

• Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
• There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。

10 slaughtered   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The invading army slaughtered a lot of people. 侵略军杀了许多人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hundreds of innocent civilians were cruelly slaughtered. 数百名无辜平民遭残杀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 rippling   

起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的

参考例句：

• I could see the dawn breeze rippling the shining water. 我能看见黎明的微风在波光粼粼的水面上吹出道道涟漪。
• The pool rippling was caused by the waving of the reeds. 池塘里的潺潺声是芦苇摇动时引起的。