CHINA> Regional
Pig farmers, dealers jailed over banned additive
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-09 23:37

GUANGZHOU: Nine people in south China's Guangdong Province were sentenced Thursday to jail terms ranging from six months to four years after being convicted of using a banned additive to raise or sell pigs.

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All nine had pleaded guilty. Deng Yungao, a pig dealer in the Jinrong livestock trade market in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, was found guilty of selling 95 pigs fed with the additive, called "shouroujing" in Chinese, in February.

Deng's partners, Liu Xunyao, got a one-year jail term and Xiao Xueqing, got a ten-month sentence.

Two other courts in Guangzhou sentenced seven others, including sellers of the additive and raisers of pigs, to jail terms ranging from four months to three years with fines for selling or using the poisonous chemical.

The chemical, which literally means "lean meat essences for pigs" in Chinese, can prevent pigs from accumulating fat, but is poisonous to humans and can be fatal. It is banned as an additive in pig feed in China.

A total of 46 people in Guangzhou were poisoned in February after eating pig organs that contained the additive, local health authorities had said. However, no deaths were reported.