Thousands of dead pigs surface in Shanghai's rivers
Shanghai officials pleaded for calm and insisted that drinking water for Shanghai's 23 million residents is still safe (c) 2013, The Washington Post. BEIJING — When hundreds of porcine bodies started surfacing this past weekend in rivers upstream from the city, it prompted only mild shock, showing perhaps how routine safety scares about food and water have become in China.
But worries turned to panic late Tuesday, when authorities revealed that the number of dead pigs pulled out of waterways had climbed in the course of three days to 5,916.
Shanghai officials pleaded for calm and insisted that drinking water for Shanghai's 23 million residents is still safe. They said there is no disease epidemic causing the deaths. Instead they pointed the finger at farmers in the nearby city of Jiaxing, who they say are dumping pigs who die in the course of their farm- ing into the Huangpu River instead of properly burying or incinerating them.
Shanghai's agricultural department said samples from some of the dead pigs showed the presence of porcine circovirus, which they said poses no safety risk for humans.
More than 200 municipal boats have been mobilized to patrol the river and retrieve bodies from the water, authorities said.
Water and air pollution have increasingly sparked public anger in China. And the pigs — one of the most ubiquitous staples of Chinese cuisine — are the latest to attract public scrutiny.