But it suffered nothing like the blue-ear disease that took such a toll on the country's pigs in 2007-08.

ECONOMIST: Price rises in China

Now the concentrated effort against the disease is inside the extended blue restriction zone - some 500 square miles of the North East - where vets, slaughtermen and soldiers operate the most stringent bio-security regime around a sweeping slaughter and culling campaign.

BBC: Disease 'stranglehold' on farmers

For example, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield found that overall health care costs were reduced by 50% in the first year when people with heart disease or risk factors went through our lifestyle program in 24 hospitals and clinics in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Nebraska.

CNN: Change your lifestyle, reverse your diseases