Thanks to timely treatment and a healthy dose of good fortune, farmer Li Haiqing managed to recover from the disease caused by the pig bacteria streptococcus suis.

But as one of the few survivors of the disease that has killed 31 people and made hundreds more ill in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the 55-year-old faces an uncertain future.

"Two of my 15 pigs died two weeks ago - including the one that made me ill," Li said at his home in Guashi Village near the city of Ziyang in the province.

And owing to the epidemic, Li is forbidden from selling his thirteen remaining pigs.

"The seven people in my family mainly lived on money made from selling the livestock," the skinny Li said, anxiously eyeing his animals.

Worse, Li was forced to spend money on medication to cure his asthma, which was aggravated after he came into contact with the disease earlier this month. He was only released from hospital on Tuesday.

Li, as the sole breadwinner in the family, is now worried about how the family will survive since he can no longer do heavy work following his infection.

The epidemic that has now spread to around 100 villages in Sichuan also hit others in Guashi.

According to local veterinarian Fu Jinwen, about 90 per cent of the farmers in the village earn part of their income from raising pigs.

"It is estimated there are 30,000 hogs being raised privately in the village, on top of the dozens killed in the epidemic," said the vet.

Even large- and medium-sized pig farms are facing financial hardship, as the price of pork is now lower than production costs.

Big industry with poor conditions

In Ziyang, raising livestock is the premier industry.

In 2004, total income from animal husbandry accounted for around half of that earned from agriculture, according to official statistics.

But aside from pig farms that supply large processing companies, most farmers raise animals in private sties. And sanitary conditions in such places are far from ideal, said Jia Youling, director general of the Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Sichuan is known for its pig industry. Last year, the province raised 68.4 million hogs, accounting for one-ninth of all pigs raised across the country.

According to reports, many Sichuan's pigs are raised in household farms.

All cases of streptococcus suis were reported in pigs found at these small farms where hygiene conditions don't meet standards, said Jia Youling.

Li lives in a single-storey house, with his pigs confined to a damp, dark and smelly sty across from the bedroom.

Just next to the pigpen, the corn used to feed the animals is piled casually in the enclosed courtyard.

On the mossy ground sit animal droppings, sheep and chicken feed along with other rubbish strewn around, attracting flies. Just a metre away an ewe is feeding her four lambs.

"Life here is extremely harsh," said Li's wife, who has never left Sichuan.

Drainage is basic at best, with pig faeces moving slowly through a hole in the wall to the outside.

Inside Li's house, it is sweltering. Bad ventilation and an unusually hot summer serve to worsen the smell.

Pig production and sales

According to Fu Jinwen, the pigs in the village receive only one or two compulsory inoculations a year against pig-borne viruses and foot-and-mouth disease.

Farmers earn 200 yuan (US$25) from raising a pig, and it takes them half a year," Fu said,

Usually, farmers sell home-raised animals to private slaughterers, who then trade the meat to processors, according to Fu.

"Farmers are reluctant to sell pigs to large slaughter houses as they worry about the cost of transportation," said Fu.

But many small-scale slaughterers operate illegally as they manage to escape quarantine and inspection checks, and go on to trade pork to underground processors, said Fu, adding that some of this pork may end up getting sold to other provinces.

If animals die from some unknown disease, most farmers deal with the carcass themselves and then eat the meat.

During the current outbreak in Ziyang and Neijiang, many farmers became sick after eating suspect pork.

Fifty-five-year-old Wang Xingcheng, a farmer in Renli Village of Yanjiang Township, developed a fever and lost his hearing after he ate such pork on July 18.

"In fact it's illegal to handle animals that died from an unknown disease or eat their meat," Fu said.

But most low-income farmers in Ziyang insist on doing so as they paid a lot for the piglets, their inoculations and feed.

According to Fu, one piglet alone costs about 400 yuan (US$50), in addition to the cost of vaccines and inoculation.

Furthermore, even if farmers agree to follow the correct procedures and bury the dead animal with calcium oxide, they are still required to pay for the chemical and do all burial work on their own.

As a result, no one likes to bother the local epidemic prevention station, Fu said.

Research on the bacteria

At present, two factories, one in Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province and the other in Sichuan Province, are mass-producing vaccines for the pigs.

According to Yang Weizhong, director of the disease control and emergency response office of the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, people are only likely to contract the disease if they slaughter or handle pigs that are sick or have died from the infection.

No other transmission channels, like mosquito bites, or person-to-person contact, have been found.

However, it remains unknown why the bacteria only affects some who have come into close contact with the problematic pork.

According to Li, his entire family ate the infected pork after his brother handled the dead animal about two weeks ago.

Apart from Li, who suffered conjunctival suffusion after the illness, and his brother who had a short-term fever, the other family members remained healthy.

Also a factor is that not all pigs are sensitive to the bacteria.

Wang Xingcheng's daughter said the outbreak killed two animals in her family's herd. But another pig, which originally showed the same symptoms as the other two, recovered after the local vet gave it a shot.

Yang Weizhong blames the current epidemic on the unsanitary conditions in Sichuan's small-scale pig farms combined with hot temperatures.

But experts are still not sure whether the disease is caused by a new bacterium.

"We still don't now much about it," Yang said.

Treatment

On Thursday, at least 30 patients were still receiving treatment in the Department of Contagious Disease at Ziyang No 1 People's Hospital.

Wang, who has been in hospital for around a week, was on an intravenous drip.

Wang's daughter said she paid 500 yuan (US$62) when her father was accepted by the facility.

In spite of this, the government has pledged to provide free treatment to victims of streptococcus suis.

Source: China Daily