Beef traders, meanwhile, also said their businesses had been hard hit and the city’s fresh beef and lamb supplies were also drying up after the city’s abattoirs had stopped operating.

In a meeting with representatives of local livestock farmers on Tuesday, officials promised to liaise with the private Tsuen Wan slaughterhouse. But the move failed to pacify the farmers, who said their farms had been “overwhelmed” by pigs.

“Our stocks of pig feed cannot last any longer than two or three days. If the pigs can’t be sent to abattoirs, we will have no choice but to release them at government headquarters,” said Lam Wing-yuen, a pig farmer and vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Livestock Industry Association.

Lawmaker Steven Ho Chun-yin, who led about 20 representatives to meet officials, accused the government of inaction. “[The slaughterhouse] is in breach of its licence. We see no reason the government can take no action against Tsuen Wan slaughterhouse.”

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The slaughterhouse, which can handle on average 400 pigs a day, has remained shut down since Saturday. Some farmers claimed the operators had told them that slaughtering pigs from local farms would be a loss-making exercise for them because the numbers were too small.

Chung Wai-ping, a rural leader and one of the directors of the company that owns the facility, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Before the meeting, health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee told the press: “The Tsuen Wan slaughterhouse is privately owned and it is their commercial decision [to stop work]. We hope they can reopen if there are no particular problems so as to minimise the impact on meat supply. We are trying to find out what is going on there.”

Chan also noted that the supply of frozen meat was not affected.

Speaking after the meeting with the pig farmers, Undersecretary for Food and Health Dr Tsui Tak-yi said the government appreciated the farmers’ concerns and would write to Tsuen Wan slaughterhouse for an explanation of why it had stopped work.

“When we receive their reply and find out their reasons, we will not rule out taking further action,” said Dr Tsui. “As a licence-holder, they have the responsibility to maintain the normal operations of the slaughterhouse.”

Meanwhile, the pig cull operation at the Sheung Shui abattoir has finished, according to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. The department expected the slaughterhouse to reopen by next Monday, following a thorough cleansing and disinfection.

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The pigs were electrocuted and wrapped in plastic before being taken to landfills. But pictures taken by the press showed many of the carcasses were being dumped unwrapped.

The department dismissed concerns this might pose health risks. A spokesman said disinfectant powders would be used to cover the carcasses before the pits were filled in with soil. The vehicles transporting the dead pigs would also be sterilised before they left the landfills.

The cull of 6,515 pigs in the Sheung Shui slaughterhouse was prompted after the discovery of the city’s first confirmed African swine fever case last Friday. The closure of the facility, which normally can handle some 3,800 pigs and 47 cattle a day, also means cows, lambs, cannot be slaughtered there either for the meantime.

Trade representatives said it was too early to say how much the episode was costing the city’s butchers. But they hoped the government might consider compensating them.

There are 43 pig farms in Hong Kong, with about 50,000 pigs. Between 3,500 and 4,000 live pigs are imported from China to Hong Kong each day and slaughtered for consumption.

African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease that infects pigs. It does not affect other animal species or humans. Although people will not contract the disease from eating pork, the Centre for Food Safety advises people to cook pork thoroughly before consumption to avoid contracting food-borne diseases.