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Four fired in Sichuan sick-pig scandal

Four local Chinese officials have been fired for failing to dispose properly of infected pigs amid efforts to stop the spread of a swine-borne disease that has killed 39 people, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Li Mingzhong, chief of the Animal Husbandry and Food Bureau in Sichuan province's Zizhong county, allegedly claimed that carcasses of 78 dead pigs were properly disposed of when they had not been, the China Daily newspaper reported.

The government has ordered stringent anti-disease measures in Sichuan, where 208 people have been stricken since June by an illness blamed on streptococcus suis, a bacteria carried by pigs.

Li and three colleagues were accused of failing to verify that the pigs had been safely buried deep underground and trying to deceive investigators, the China Daily said.

It identified the other officials as Liu Wei, head of the county animal epidemic prevention and supervision station, Jiang Xiaogang, who is deputy chief of the same station and Chen Bin, chief of the animal husbandry and veterinary station in the town of Taiping.

One person infected by the disease died Saturday, bringing the death toll to 39, the worst outbreak in the region in recent years.

The World Health Organization has urged Chinese health authorities to conduct more tests since experts say it is highly unusual for so many people to fall sick and die suddenly from the disease.

Some 208 people have become ill since June in dozens of villages and towns in Sichuan province, a major pig-raising region, according to China's Health Ministry. Most were farmers who butchered or handled sick pigs.

Fifteen people remain in critical condition.

No person-to-person infections have been reported.

Symptoms of the disease include high fever, nausea and vomiting, followed by meningitis, hemorrhaging under the skin, toxic shock and coma in severe cases.

Some patients also suffered organ failure.

Chinese health officials say that the strain is extremely virulent and killed one farmer in as little as two hours.

But they have assured the public the disease was under control.

Beijing was criticized in 2003 for being reticent about sharing information on its first outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which emerged from the country's south and killed nearly 800 people around the globe.

Emergency notices were issued this week by the central government ordering tighter controls on the slaughter and sale of pigs to curb the spread of the streptococcus suis bacteria.

Officials and farmers who fail to obey have been threatened with severe punishment.

News reports last week said some officials were dismissed after failing to enforce a ban on the export of pork from affected areas of Sichuan.
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