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China’s electrifying idea to stop African swine fever: a high-voltage pigsty
- Researchers to wire up pens for 2,000 pigs and generate an electric field they believe can kill germs
- A farm in central China that previously conducted the experiment reported no cases of swine fever
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Stephen Chenin Beijing
Scientists are planning a high-voltage electricity experiment at a farm in southwestern China to create cleaner conditions for animals and explore whether doing so could help halt the African swine fever pandemic.
Cables will be installed around pens housing about 2,000 pigs to create an electric field – an invisible force surrounding an electric charge – which the scientists believe will purify the air. They aim to test whether a method already believed to improve animal welfare can restrict the spread of the pandemic, which has decimated China’s hog herd.
The experiment will be conducted at a medium-sized hog farm in Chengdu, in China’s largest pig-rearing province, Sichuan.
Led by Professor Liu Binjiang, a government scientist in northeastern China, it was inspired by Liu’s work on a national “electro culture” programme that has been shown to benefit crops by using a combination of electric field and artificial lighting to stimulate plant growth and reduce diseases.
This time, Liu and collaborators will generate a static electric field of 50 kilovolts – more than 400 times the voltage in a standard US household plug.
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