First Dead Pigs, Now Dead Ducks Foul a Chinese River
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ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Having already cleaned up thousands of dead pigs from a river outside Shanghai, Chinese officials are now assuring folks that the hundreds of rotting ducks fished out of a river pose no health danger.
Officials in Sichuan province in southwest China were notified of the more than 1,000 dead ducks on Tuesday, county spokesman Liang Weidong told state radio. The duck carcasses were found in more than 50 plastic woven bags floating on the Pengshan section of the Nanhe River.
The government reassured citizens that the duck carcasses had been disinfected and buried and that there was no threat to humans and livestock along the bank of the river, Liang said.
Local authorities could not identify the causes of death because the corpses were too decomposed. The possibility of infectious disease has been excluded.
“We have visited and searched more than 390 duck sheds in the area. There is no sign an epidemic broke out. We believe the large amount of ducks died because the weather suddenly got too warm,” said Shi Qian, the director of Sichuan Animal Health Inspection Bureau.
The livestock bureau in Panshan County is working to locate the farms and the farmers who tossed the dead ducks in the river.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio