3,000 pigs died drifting in Shanghai

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture launched an emergency investigation on more than 3,000 pigs appearing on a river in the east.

Chinese officials received phone calls from people about the floating corpses on the section of the Huangpu River in the territory of Songjiang District, Shanghai City from March 7. The portal Xinmin said that as of March 11, authorities had picked up 3,323 pigs.

Chen Xiaohua, China's Deputy Minister of Agriculture, said animal and animal protection agencies in Shanghai and Zhejiang province also participated in the investigation, China Daily reported.

The bodies of pigs on the banks of the Huangpu River. (Photo: AP)

Preliminary surveys show that animal diseases do not appear in the area around the scene. But the results of the pig tests suggest that they are likely to die by porcine circovirus, a virus that causes inflammation of the skin and kidney failure. This disease is quite common in pigs over the years.

Shanghai authorities say they have traced the source of the corpses from their card in their ears. Information on the card shows that they come from Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. Some Chinese newspapers, such as the Jiaxing Daily, reported that a large number of pigs died at Jiaxing in the first two months of this year.

"In Zhulin village, where people live by raising pigs, most of the more than 1,400 households raise pigs. In January, more than 10,000 pigs in the village died. More than 8,000 died in February , " the newspaper said. affirmed.

Pigs in the village live in crowded houses so bacteria and viruses can spread easily. So a few thousand pigs died at the beginning of the year and people did not have enough room to bury them.

An official with the Hu family of Jiaxing City said that the government always asked people to submit dead animals to the authorities so they could destroy them."But we do not rule out the possibility that some farmers have dumped pig bodies into the Huangpu River , " he said.