Why Thousands Of Pigs Are Being Flown To China On Boeing 747s

Simple Flying ^ | 11 June 2020 | Joanna Bailey

[DUMBGRUNT]

A Russian cargo carrier has proven once and for all that pigs do fly. More than 3,000 happy hogs have earned their wings, traveling a mile high between Europe and China onboard a Boeing 747 operated by Volga Dnepr.

A pig-culiar problem The Chinese are lacking in pigs. You could say they’re squealing out for swine after an outbreak of African swine fever obliterated the nation’s herds of hogs. First detected in August 2018, the deadly disease has decimated the pig population by around 50%.

China loves pigs, but not for their superior land clearing abilities or cute curly tails. The country is, in fact, both the world’s biggest producer and, simultaneously, its biggest importer of pork meat. The Chinese eat an average of 30kg of pork a year per person, twice as much as the UK.

To be clear, these pigs aren’t destined for slaughter, not initially at least. They’ll be sent to pastures in the hope of happy breeding and repopulation of the local supply.

[Redcitizen]

Think I’ll have some sweet and sour pork tonight.

[pricilla]

Reading the headline,I was expecting a story about law enforcement taking a group vacation.

[Kickass Conservative]

We’re having BLT’s for Dinner. Yum, yum...

[Redcitizen]

Good choice ! 👍😎

[oldasrocks]

Someone needs to convince that our feral hogs don’t get swine flu. In a week the feral hog problem would be solved as china would offer to buy them all at an inflated price. Every redneck in the country would be rounding up the ferals for a large price.

[LadyDoc]

The virus was sent from China to the Philippines, even though there was a ban on pork imports. It can spread to a pig if the pig eats infected meat, such as in infected discarded food, but China managed to send the infected pork products here via smugglers, bribes, or mis labeling (one batch was labled as coming from Germany).

Sick pigs are supposed to be culled, but instead the Chinese let the pork be processed and sold. (Sausage, ham, tocino).

Some of our neighbors whose farms included a few pigs had to kill their pigs. And we are now eating a lot less pork...more fish and even beef, which we rarely ate in the past. I should add that we eat local foods.

The is is a big thing in China, since people are more affluent and eat more pork.

[Old Yeller]

Send them to Mecca.