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(Yicai Global) Feb. 19 -- Thailand's largest private company has prohibited its husbandry staff in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from purchasing Sanquan Food products after the recent detection of African Swine Fever in its frozen dumplings.
Bangkok-based conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group has asked employees at its agribusiness unit in China not to buy products from Sanquan along with 10 other brands via a WeChat message as part of efforts reduce the risk of its own pigs catching the virus, state-backed Chinese News Service reported.
The notice only involves the group's unit in Inner Mongolia, according to a staff member at the general manager office of the local unit where CP Group's Chinese swine husbandry operations are focused.
African swine flu is an acute infectious disease. China confirmed the first case of in northeastern Liaoning province in August. It has since found 93 cases with 7,270 pigs ill and 5,550 dead as of Dec. 16, the country's agriculture ministry said. Although the virus cannot spread to humans, it may be passed to livestock especially if employees take infected products into farms or feed factories.
The rule is more of a warning and the company hopes that workers pay attention to it, the staff member said, adding that there have been no punishments related to the rule so far.
Chinese pig breeder Muyuan Foodstuff similarly called on its own workforce to avoid coming into contact pork products outside of work in response to the outbreak at the end of last year.
Charoen Pokphand Group is a diversified international conglomerate that works in more than 10 sectors including finance, real estate, medicines and machining with agricultural foods, commercial retail and telecommunications as its three core businesses. It operates in more than 100 countries and regions worldwide.
Editor: William Clegg