Pig infected with African swine fever ‘unlikely to have contracted virus before it entered Hong Kong’ says mainland Chinese agency
- General Administration of Customs says farm the pig came from has suffered no recent abnormal animal deaths
- Chance the pig was infected at transfer warehouse in Shenzhen also low, agency says
Mainland Chinese authorities have claimed a pig from Guangdong province that became Hong Kong’s first case of African swine fever was unlikely to have contracted the virus before it reached the city.
The General Administration of Customs, a mainland agency involved in the supply of agricultural produce to Hong Kong, said on Wednesday the farm the pig came from had suffered no abnormal animal deaths recently and concluded the possibility the animal had been infected before arriving in the city was “very low”.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs had made no reports related to the virus in that farm or areas nearby.
Citing records from Hong Kong authorities, the agency said samples from pigs in that farm collected since March had also been tested negative towards the virus, meaning “there was no history of the disease in that farm”.