Neighbor city says it's not source of all 8,354 dead pigs in Huangpu
By Zhao Wen and Cai Wenjun |
March 16, 2013, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
JIAXING City government insisted that not all of the dead pigs that Shanghai retrieved from the Huangpu River were dumped by its pig farmers, officials said during a press conference late last night.
The number of dead pigs pulled from the Huangpu River reached 8,354 after another 809 carcasses were retrieved yesterday. Two-thirds of those collected yesterday were piglets, Shanghai officials said.
Zhao Shumei, vice mayor of Jiaxing in neighboring Zhejiang Province, said Jiaxing had collected 3,601 dumped dead pigs as of yesterday, and 80 percent of them were piglets.
She insisted that the survival rate of pigs raised in Jiaxing was normal.
Among the 17 ear tags recovered from the dead pigs provided by the Shanghai government, 13 have been identified.
Zhao said ear tags were attached to pigs after they were vaccinated for the first time. However, pigs could be sold elsewhere. The dead pigs, even with the ear tags from Jiaxing, might not have been raised or dumped by Jiaxing farmers, Zhao explained.
Jiaxing officials said their city raised a large number of pigs in very dense conditions. Poor breeding environments, lagging skills at small pig farms and the freezing weather this winter and spring led to large numbers of deaths, especially for piglets that were more vulnerable to cold.
Zhao also admitted that some local pig farmers were poorly informed about laws and dumped dead pigs without a second thought. Most of the retrieved pigs died more than 15 days ago, suggesting it was not a sudden, recent event.
Shanghai boosts treatment capacity
Shanghai agricultural authorities said yesterday that the city is upgrading its capacity for environmentally sound treatment of animal carcasses. Also, another animal carcass biological treatment center will be built in Chongming County within two years.
Monitoring found no serious infectious diseases among local pigs or large-scale pig deaths in Shanghai, city spokesman Xu Wei said.
Authorities also didn't detect local farmers discarding dead pigs in the Huangpu River.
Shanghai has been the first provincial-level government in the nation to set up an animal carcasses biological treatment center in 2002. The city bought 16 sealed animal carcasses transportation vehicles to collect carcasses from farms in 2008.
The center has one incinerator and one biological treatment system, while expansion of another incinerator is slated to be done before April.
The city started to offer subsidies to farmers for pig carcasses last year to ensure all such carcasses were sent to the official processing network. Farmers can get 80 yuan (US$12.7) for each pig.
Last year, the center collected and treated 10,735 tons of dead animals and animal products.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai government is stepping up monitoring of water quality, and all testing data at six intakes at the bodies of water where dead pigs were found were within the normal range, Xu said yesterday.
No pollution has been detected in the raw water in the upstream areas of the Huangpu River in Shanghai.
The city government said that aside from strictly supervising the biological treatment of the pig carcasses retrieved, it is also closely monitoring pork quality at local markets and butcher shops.
The number of dead pigs pulled from the Huangpu River reached 8,354 after another 809 carcasses were retrieved yesterday. Two-thirds of those collected yesterday were piglets, Shanghai officials said.
Zhao Shumei, vice mayor of Jiaxing in neighboring Zhejiang Province, said Jiaxing had collected 3,601 dumped dead pigs as of yesterday, and 80 percent of them were piglets.
She insisted that the survival rate of pigs raised in Jiaxing was normal.
Among the 17 ear tags recovered from the dead pigs provided by the Shanghai government, 13 have been identified.
Zhao said ear tags were attached to pigs after they were vaccinated for the first time. However, pigs could be sold elsewhere. The dead pigs, even with the ear tags from Jiaxing, might not have been raised or dumped by Jiaxing farmers, Zhao explained.
Jiaxing officials said their city raised a large number of pigs in very dense conditions. Poor breeding environments, lagging skills at small pig farms and the freezing weather this winter and spring led to large numbers of deaths, especially for piglets that were more vulnerable to cold.
Zhao also admitted that some local pig farmers were poorly informed about laws and dumped dead pigs without a second thought. Most of the retrieved pigs died more than 15 days ago, suggesting it was not a sudden, recent event.
Shanghai boosts treatment capacity
Shanghai agricultural authorities said yesterday that the city is upgrading its capacity for environmentally sound treatment of animal carcasses. Also, another animal carcass biological treatment center will be built in Chongming County within two years.
Monitoring found no serious infectious diseases among local pigs or large-scale pig deaths in Shanghai, city spokesman Xu Wei said.
Authorities also didn't detect local farmers discarding dead pigs in the Huangpu River.
Shanghai has been the first provincial-level government in the nation to set up an animal carcasses biological treatment center in 2002. The city bought 16 sealed animal carcasses transportation vehicles to collect carcasses from farms in 2008.
The center has one incinerator and one biological treatment system, while expansion of another incinerator is slated to be done before April.
The city started to offer subsidies to farmers for pig carcasses last year to ensure all such carcasses were sent to the official processing network. Farmers can get 80 yuan (US$12.7) for each pig.
Last year, the center collected and treated 10,735 tons of dead animals and animal products.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai government is stepping up monitoring of water quality, and all testing data at six intakes at the bodies of water where dead pigs were found were within the normal range, Xu said yesterday.
No pollution has been detected in the raw water in the upstream areas of the Huangpu River in Shanghai.
The city government said that aside from strictly supervising the biological treatment of the pig carcasses retrieved, it is also closely monitoring pork quality at local markets and butcher shops.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
