Monday 28 November 2022 03:50 PM China launches 26-story pig farming skyscraper in Ezhou trends now
China has constructed a 26-story pig-farming skyscraper raising concerns among experts that the one-of-a-kind facility could lead to severe disease outbreaks.
Hubei Zhongxin Kaiwai Modern Farming built the vertical pig farm which resembles a high-rise apartment building, and launched operations last month in Ezhou - about 80km east from Wuhan where the Covid-19 pandemic began.
The facility has the capacity to slaughter 1.2million swine a year and was established to meet the nation's soaring demand for meat, with China consuming half the world's pork.
Dr Danielle Anderson, who studies viral pathogenesis in animals, told Daily Mail Australia although such a facility would be saving a lot of space in terms of land, the high-density setting means bacterial diseases could spread much more rapidly.
A Chinese company has constructed the biggest single-building pig farm in the world in Ezhou - about 80km east from Wuhan
'There are two ways to look at it,' the research scientist from the Royal Melbourne's Hospital VIDRL at the Doherty Institute said.
'From a scientific point-of-view, in theory, it sounds fantastic because instead of taking up a lot of space, the pigs can be housed on multi levels and that's great'
Dr Anderson explained that if there was a disease spreading within the building it 'should be easier to treat because it's contained'.
'On the flip side, if anything does get in, I would think it would wipe them out quicker. So, that I think is a really big issue if you had such a big density of animals,' she continued.
'If you have pigs that are sick and dying, you're going to see that. But if it's something spreading and not making them sick, you potentially have disease going through like a fire and taking them all out.'
Dr Anderson believed that 'from an animal point of view' the facility is far from ideal.
The facility is meeting the huge demand for pig meat in China, as the country consumes around half the world's pork. The facility has the size and resources to slaughter up to 1.2million pigs a year
'On a personal point-of-view, are
