March 15, 2013

China imprisons 46 individuals involved in sales of diseased pork

A court in East China's Zhejiang province has imprisoned 46 people involved in processing and selling meat from diseased pigs.

Zhang Xingbing, the principal offender who illegally purchased diseased pigs for slaughter and sale, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison and fined US$128,687, according to the Wenling People's Court.

Forty-five other offenders and local vendors, who sold diseased pigs to Zhang, were also sentenced.

They sold diseased pork from 2010 to 2012.

The Wenling Public Security Department launched a campaign to apprehend the offenders and seize diseased pork on April 4, 2012, the court said, adding that 6,218 kilogrammes of pork products, tested positive for various viruses, have been seized and will be destroyed.

Meanwhile, a pig carcasses dumping scandal is also swirling around Zhejiang.

Neighbouring Shanghai has collected about 6,000 dead pigs from the Huangpu River since last week, after the corpses were allegedly dumped in the river by pig farms in Zhejiang's Jiaxing City.

Porcine circovirus was detected in one water sample taken from the Huangpu River, according to the local agricultural commission.