Chinese butchers have taken a hard-learned lesson from the pig-borne endemic which has claimed 34 lives in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

"I would never dare to deal with sick pigs myself," said Wu Daixun, who was among the first group of victims of the disease in early July.

Wu said that it is very common for rural Chinese pig farmers to slaughter ill or dead pigs and either sell the pieces to local markets or eat them themselves.

Wu had a small wound on his hand when he helped his brother slaughter a dead pig on his farm. Feeling dizzy a few hours later, he thought that he had caught a cold.

After being taken to hospital, Wu was diagnosed as having contracted swine streptococcus suis II, a viral strain endemic.

Wu said that it was really a hard lesson to him. "It is not worthwhile at all to die to earn a trivial sum of money from a sick pig."

Nearly every rural household raises pigs in Ziyang City where Wu lives, and the city was the worst hit by the epidemic. Nearly all victims are pig farmers who had direct contact with ill or dead pigs. None of industrial pig farms in the city were affected during the incident. Unsanitary slaughtering habits have been blamed for the breakout.

The spread of the virus in Sichuan was brought under control by the end of July. The city of Ziyang has initiated an emergency operation mechanism to deal with public health problems in the animal husbandry sector, and the number of newly reported patients and deaths has been declining, according to city authorities.

Source: Xinhua