Stock dips after African swine fever shuts slaughterhouse

The African swine fever (ASF) caused shares of Chinese pork-producing industry to plunge on Thursday but they stabilized on Friday, after China’s top pork producer WH Group shut its major slaughterhouse to stop the spread of deadly ASF.

In Hong Kong, shares of WH Group, the world’s top pork producer, inched up 0.49 percent, after dropping 7.46 percent on Thursday. Shares of China’s largest pork processor Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development, a subsidiary of WH Group, edged up 0.67 percent on Friday after dropping to the daily limit of 10 percent on Thursday.

However, Henan-based Muyuan Foods Co continued to see its share prices drop by 5.24 percent to 22.41 yuan ($3.26) on Friday, after a 5.7 percent slump Thursday.

The WH Group will have to shut its slaughterhouse in Zhengzhou, capital of Central China’s Henan Province for six weeks beginning Thursday after 30 live pigs that had been transported from Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province died of the virus.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said the slaughterhouse had bought 260 pigs from a market in Tangyuan county in Heilongjiang, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Heilongjiang Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau said the pigs were from a local company. They traveled 2,000 kilometers and arrived at Zhengzhou on August 14.

Experts investigating the epidemic at the company took samples for testing, the bureau said.