KUCHING: The issue of virus-infected pig meat that has gone viral does not affect the condition of pork or pig meat sold in Sarawak.
Gene, a local butcher in Petanak Market who has been selling pork for twenty years told that the virus does not concern the community here in Sarawak as it only affects Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and wherever the virus was found.
“The declining sale of pork in Sarawak is not due to the virus but it is due to the state’s economy,” he said when asked to comment on the matter (declining sale) today in Petanak Market, Kuching.
The pork that they sell will have to go through the daily veterinarian service check up before the pigs are slaughtered in Siniawan, Bau, he added. Butchers will only take the meat for sale in the market only after such process.
“We have to collect the pig meat from Siniawan, Bau because the veterinaries there will be those to slaughter it properly as we are not allowed to simply slaughter the pigs in our house and sell the meat to consumers.
“It is dangerous to do such actions without the veterinary services as we do not know whether the pig meat is healthy or not,” he said.
Gene affirmed that the pork sold in the state is free of the virus because there are checkups done by the veterinary in Siniawan before it is sold to consumers.
The viral issue of the virus-infected pork took place on March 15 in United States of America where US federal agents confiscated 1 million pounds of pork smuggled into the country from China amid an African swine fever virus scare.
