Guangdong ensuring pork supply to HK, Macao after swine fever outbreak

GUANGZHOU -- South China's Guangdong Province has said that actions have been taken to ensure pork supplies to Hong Kong and Macao after the province's first African swine fever outbreak prompted it to cull nearly 2,000 pigs.

The agriculture and rural affairs department of Guangdong, a major hog and pork supplier to neighboring Hong Kong and Macao, said they had formulated plans to prevent disruptions in hog and pork supplies to the two cities.

Inspections of farms have also been strengthened to ensure quality and safety of products, it said.

Eleven pigs were confirmed dead after being infected with the viral disease at a slaughterhouse in Xiangzhou district in the city of Zhuhai on Wednesday.

The department on Thursday said they had enhanced inspections and disinfection in the city's pig farms and slaughterhouses, though no other cases of the disease have been reported in the province.

Guangdong supplies 1.6 million and 120,000 hogs to Hong Kong and Macao, respectively, every year.

The southern province is the 23rd province in China that has reported the outbreak of African swine fever, a highly contagious disease that infects pigs. The disease does not affect other animal species or humans.

China reported its first case of the disease in August in the northeastern province of Liaoning.