The weak and ill-managed quarantine network is to blame for a rise in animal epidemics, particularly those that can be transmitted to humans, veterinary experts warn.
The State Council has issued a blueprint on how to prevent and treat animal epidemics for the next eight years, noting several outbreaks and the dramatic rise in recent years of cases such as rabies, bird flu and brucellosis, a fever-causing bacterial infection caught from livestock.
'Research shows 70 per cent of animal epidemics can be transmitted to humans and 75 per cent of new illnesses discovered in humans recently have come from animals or food of animal origin,' it said. 'Without control of animal epidemics, public health will be seriously damaged.'
According to a recent report by Caixin Century Weekly, the rate of infection of brucellosis has increased 30 times the figure 15 years ago. Last year alone there were 38,151 human cases of brucellosis, which can be caught when people ingest infected milk or meat or come into contact with secretions of infected animals - usually goats, sheep and dogs.
'A lot of farmers don't vaccinate the animals they raise,' said Professor Yan Jie, from the school of basic medical sciences at Zhejiang University. 'Sometimes it's because they want to save money; sometimes it's because they're unaware of what will happen if their animals contract an epidemic disease.
'Supervision is weak in many rural regions. Some places don't even have a veterinary centre.'