Four officials sacked for lying about disposal of dead pigs
Four officials in Sichuan have been sacked for covering up the whereabouts of dead pigs during the province's disease outbreak involving pig-borne bacteria.
This comes after two township officials were fired for 'not doing enough, sluggishness in education the public [about the disease] and negligence' last month.
Communist Party officials in charge of discipline in Neijiang city on Friday announced the sacking of the four Zizhong county officials for 'being irresponsible' and making up disease-control measures, the West China Metropolis News reported yesterday.
The report said the party would investigate 'their disciplinary responsibilities'.
The four were: Li Mingzhong , Zizhong county animal husbandry and food bureau party secretary and bureau chief; Jiang Xiaogang, deputy chief of the county Animal Epidemic Prevention and Supervision Centre; Liu Wei , the centre's law-enforcement officer; and Chen Bin , the county's Taiping Town Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine Station chief.
According to the report, Mr Li and his bureau staff lied about the disposal of 78 dead pigs, filing reports saying the animals had been 'buried' or 'slaughtered' without actually confirming their whereabouts after collecting information from farmers from July 15 to 24.
Mr Li and the others did not follow procedures set by the State Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine Bureau in documenting the disposal of dead pigs.
In addition, the four misled reporters from CCTV who came to report the outbreaks and hid evidence from investigators.
Meanwhile, the number of reported infections in Sichuan rose to 214 yesterday, with 12 of the 117 people in hospital in critical condition, according to the Ministry of Health. By noon, one more person had died of the disease in Sichuan, raising the death toll to 39.
The World Organisation for Animal Health said on Friday that China formally notified it of the outbreak upon its request.
China told the organisation that the National Animal Exotic Centre and the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute had ruled out bird flu and Nipah virus in their diagnosis. China said the 'use of vaccination may be considered to be further undertaken'.
