Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan inspects the disinfection pool at Sheung Shui slaughterhouse in Hong Kong on Feb 6, 2019. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVERNMENT)
HONG KONG - An African swine fever case was confirmed at a slaughterhouse in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and about 6,000 pigs would be culled, a health official of the SAR government said late Friday.
We envisage that fresh pork supply will be reduced in the near future. However, as Tsuen Wan Slaughterhouse is not affected and will operate as normal, there will still be a limited supply of live pigs available to the market
Sophia Chan, Secretary for Food and Health, HK
Sophia Chan, secretary for food and health of the HKSAR government, said it was confirmed Friday afternoon that African swine fever virus was found in a pig in the Sheung Shui slaughterhouse in the New Territories.
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An inter-departmental meeting was held to discuss the response action and follow up work.
Chan said, in order to minimize the risk of the virus spreading from the slaughterhouse, all pigs in Sheung Shui slaughterhouse would be culled so that thorough cleansing and disinfection could be conducted.
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"The operation of the Sheung Shui slaughterhouse will be suspended until the completion of the disinfection work," Chan said, adding that the SAR government would enhance the surveillance and testing of pigs.
“We envisage that fresh pork supply will be reduced in the near future. However, as Tsuen Wan Slaughterhouse is not affected and will operate as normal, there will still be a limited supply of live pigs available to the market,” Chan said.
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The health chief said African swine fever poses no food safety risk as it will not be transmitted to humans, adding that well-cooked pork is safe for consumption.
She said the government would step up the sampling of other pigs for testing in the future.
The pig concerned was imported from a Guangdong pig farm. The Centre for Food Safety is investigating the source of the virus infection.
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