HCM CITY – The HCM City People’s Committee has asked the city’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to publicise the names of 13 slaughterhouses located within the Xuyên Á slaughterhouse complex in the city’s Củ Chi District for illegally injecting pigs with sedatives.

The city has ordered the culling of all 3,750 pigs found to contain a high concentration of Axeprocemin (a type of sedative). The pigs also had symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease.

Sedatives, which help control the pigs’ restless behavior, makes meat look more attractive even if the pigs are ill.

The sedative residues, however, can have an adverse impact on the human kidney and nervous system, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The department’s inspectorate imposed an administrative fine of VNĐ430 million (US$19,000) on 13 slaughterhouses and suspended their operations for three months, pending further investigation.

The Hóc Môn Market in HCM City trades more than 5,000 pigs every day, mostly from the Xuyên Á slaughterhouse complex.

The People’s Committee has asked the city’s Department of Industry and Trade to maintain the supply and prices of pork products while operations at the Xuyên Á slaughterhouse complex are suspended.

In Đồng Nai Province, an interdisciplinary inspection team found three families carrying out unlicensed slaughtering of pigs at their homes in Thống Nhất District’s communes Gia Kiệm, Gia Tân 1 and 3. Each household was fined VNĐ7 million (US$310).

The southeastern province of Đồng Nai is the country’s largest pork producer, with about 1.7 million pigs, according to Phan Minh Báu, deputy director of the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

There are dozens of households carrying out unlicensed slaughtering of pigs in Biên Hòa City and Trảng Bom and Thống Nhất districts, mostly located in residential areas, he said.

To deal with substandard slaughterhouses, the authorities will continue to raid and fine them, confer greater responsibility to lower-level agencies, and appeal to the public to inform officials of any illegal activities. – VNS