Floating, Dead Pigs Repulse Shanghai

Source: WSJ

March 11, 2013, 11:39 a.m. ET

By JAMES T. AREDDY

SHANGHAI—Chinese authorities said they found more than 3,300 dead pigs in a river that supplies water to Shanghai, a stark illustration of China's problems with environmental pollution.

Health and agricultural authorities in Shanghai said on Monday they were investigating any potential health impact from pigs found floating in the Huangpu River and nearby waters in recent days, as well as how they got there. The river, which supplies Shanghai's 23 million residents with most of their water, winds toward downtown from the point about 70 kilometers (43 milies) south where the pigs were found.

Authorities had little immediate explanation on how so many dead pigs ended up the river or what killed them.

Pork is China's primary meat and China's around half a billion pigs often live in conditions ripe for spreading disease. One industry expert said the mass deaths indicated a disease outbreak, possibly on a single farm.

Chinese social media lit up Monday with photos of masked workers using pitchforks and bamboo poles to remove bruised pig carcasses from the river's brackish waters and its filthy embankments.

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