Dead Pig floating in River? Smells something?

Thousands of dead pigs found floating in Chinese river by Guardian
數千死豬在中國黃浦江漂流.


Is this just me thinking this is more than dead pigs and drinking water?

I recalled from childhood memories: When such news breaks out, this is a great alarm on animal farming business. In Taiwan, we would trace the sources of these dead pigs and figured out why they are dumped into river at the first place.

Why these animal farmers would dump the animal into river? That has a lot to do how local animal and agriculture inspection authority. Usually, in Asia, we would shut down the farms, kill the animals that might be infected. It is a great damage for the farmers. So, if the animal are not dying in larger scale, the first response from them is, not report situations to authority, dump the bodies somewhere.

So, the first alarm for me is FMD(Foot-and-mouth disease), it is not a rare disease in animal farming industry, and surely it is not rare in Asia. 1997 Taiwan, 2005 China, 2010-2011 Japan and Korea. And this disease won't only affect on pigs, also on cows and milk production. It might not directly do harm on human health.. However, it is a severe impact on agriculture sectors and food price

Smells anything? I have no proof but a strong suspicion growing in my heart.

(中文版)
在我兒時記憶很深刻的是1997年, 在口蹄疫的疫情正式被確認跟大規模處理之前, 台灣也是先發現大規模不正常的死豬屍, .後來壓不住才爆發的. 這主要跟農產檢疫單位的處理方式有關. 一來,農產檢疫單位也不希望還沒確認就發布新聞,造成大眾恐慌以及農產戶不必要的傷害, 都會經過一段時間來確認; 而另外一方面, 農產戶通常不知道要怎麼處理的病死問題,通常就是私下解決掉, 以避免大規模的撲殺, 關閉,以及更多的經濟損失.

但是這樣上下交相賊的結果,通常就讓問題越來越大!!! 這次新聞只提到是否影響飲用水的安全, 但是沒有討論豬隻的死因, 就讓我很好奇.

雖然我很不喜歡賺這種錢, 我還是想到這裡有潛在的investment implication: 雞肉類股. 大家可以注意一下.