Beijing butchers have reported pork sales are down by two-thirds
following rumors that the meat in the capital contained a virus
could lead to brain disease.
A month before the beginning of the Year of the Pig, a mobile
phone text message was circulated saying, "Do not eat pork at the
moment. Pork in Beijing has been contaminated by a virus that can
cause encephalitis, which can damage the brain."
Other versions of the message claimed that an insider from
China's Ministry of Health had broken the news, and that presidents
from all major Beijing-based hospitals were conferring for a
solution.
The Beijing municipal government officially refuted the rumor on
January 13.
"It is not true. Pork sold in Beijing has been tested by strict
standards. It can be eaten," Beijing Youth Daily quoted
Zhao Chunhui, deputy director with the municipal health bureau, as
saying.
He Xiong, deputy director with the Beijing Center for Disease
Control and Prevention stressed there was no medical evidence
suggesting that digestion of the pork could lead to the brain
disease, while Sun Xianze, director with China's State Food and
Drug Administration, assured the public that the text message is
nothing more than a rumor.
But the government's assurances have fallen on the deaf ears of
many Beijing residents. China Daily reported cases of
Beijing residents, who had eaten pork, suffering psychosomatic
attacks - complaining of an upset stomach or an imaginary pain.
Their suspicion is a result of a string of food safety scares that
have rocked Beijing, and indeed the whole of China, in recent
months.
A total of 160 people in Beijing contracted a parasitic disease
after eating raw or undercooked snails in a restaurant between last
June and October.
Last December, a sample test showed that a carcinogenic red dye,
Sudan IV, was confirmed to exist in salted red-yolk eggs in Beijing
markets, according to the municipal food safety office.
(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2007)