Sunday, March 17, 2013

Chinese Sanitary Workers Removed Over 12K Pig Carcasses From Huangpu River

Some of the pig carcasses tested positive with epidemic diarrhea virus and with PCV, a common virus for pigs, but harmless to humans.

By H. Nelson Goodson
March 17, 2013

Shanghai, China - On Saturday, the Chinese government state media reported that, since last week more than 12.5K pig swollen and rotting carcasses have been removed from the Shanghai Huangpu River. Yu Kangezhan, Director of the Chinese Agriculture Ministry told the state media, that the carcasses fished out of the river pose no threat to 23 million people who get their drinking water from the river. By March 8, about 8,965 pig carcasses were removed from the river by sanitary workers in the Songjiang district. By Friday, another 3,601 carcasses had been recovered from the river.
Some of the pig carcasses tested positive with the epidemic diarrhea virus and with Porcine Circovirus (PCV) disease, a common virus for pigs, but harmless to humans, according to Kangezhan.
The Shanghai Municipal Agriculture Commission (SMAC) confirmed, the pigs were discovered floating in the river last week and believes that the carcasses originated from Jiaxing where 103K pig farms are located. 
The state media reported that pig farmers from Jiaxing had raised more than 7M pigs in 2012. The Chinese government and police for months have been cracking down on the sale of contaminated pork meat in the food markets in the province. No swine flu has broken out, Kangezhan told the Chinese state media.

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