WH Group confirms ASF outbreak led to plant closure

By Aidan Fortune

- Last updated on GMT

A second outbreak of African Swine Fever has been reported in China
A second outbreak of African Swine Fever has been reported in China

Related tags Pork

Chinese pork producer WH Group has confirmed an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) at its Zhengzhou facility.

It reported that, on 14 August 2018, 30 out of 260 live hogs in a cart supplied by an independent live hog supplier in Heilongjiang for slaughtering at the Zhengzhou Slaughtering Factory were found dead and subsequently detected with ASF, leading to the People’s Government of Zhengzhou Municipality to demand that the facility be temporarily closed down for a period of six weeks starting from 16 August 2018. The business also killed all pigs at the facility.

WH Group added that it was not aware of any detection of ASF or other epidemic swine disease at other slaughtering factories in the group.

It claimed the operation of Zhengzhou Shuanghui only accounted for an “insignificant portion of the entire operation”​ and there would not be any disruption to supplies of pork and related products as a result of the temporary closure of the facility, as it expected other facilities in the group to pick up the slack.

This is the second incident of ASF reported in China in the past month. In the Liaoning region, around 8,000 pigs were reportedly found to be infected​ with the disease.

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