African swine fever returns to Hong Kong, hitting city’s pork supply and leaving consumers counting cost of pricey meat
- Latest case discovered in Sheung Shui slaughterhouse with 4,700 pigs needing to be culled
- City’s largest abattoir will be out of action for four days with price of pork soaring as supplies dwindle
The Hong Kong government has been urged to come up with a sustainable policy to handle African swine fever, after the sudden shutdown of a slaughterhouse on Saturday dried up supply and left consumers paying over the odds for pork.
The discovery of a second case of the disease on Friday night meant health authorities could cull 4,100 pigs at the premises in Sheung Shui, which along with any subsequent sanitation, should take four days.
A lawmaker and some butchers said the closure of the larger of the city’s two abattoirs twice in about a month had cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, while the problem kept returning.
“Hong Kong should immediately stop importing any pigs from mainland China, which has been the source of the infection so far,” said Helena Wong Pik-wan, a Democratic Party lawmaker.
“Hong Kong taxpayers are not an automatic teller machine, which the government has drawn HK$20 million from to compensate pig farm owners for culling 6,000 pigs the last time. This time we expect the bill to be about HK$18 million.”
