Press Releases
Investigation results of incident of pigs' urine samples detected with veterinary drug announced (with photo)
The Government yesterday (August 19) announced the investigation results
regarding an incident of urine samples from pigs imported from the Mainland
detected with prohibited veterinary drug in early August. Owing to the
failure on the part of their staff at Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse in strictly
observing the established procedures and guidelines on that day and
inadequate communication between staff, the Food and Environmental Hygiene
Department (FEHD) could not prevent some of the pigs in question from being
slaughtered and discharged to the market. In addition, the incomplete
transaction records of live pigs at the wholesale and retail levels have led
to the release of an inaccurate retailer list.
The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, said, "The responsibility
of the incident rests with the Government. I apologise again to members of
the public and the relevant stakeholders. The FEHD has issued a letter of
apology to the 27 retailers affected in the incident. To offset their loss,
the retailers will be granted a one-off ex-gratia payment for the pork and
pig offal disposed of. The amount of ex-gratia payment will be calculated
according to the market price of pork announced by the Census and Statistics
Department and the disposed amount. We thank the trade for their cooperation
with the Government in our investigation and follow-up work."
"In the light of the investigation results, the Government will further
enhance the entire work flow of the slaughterhouses, including advancing the
time for announcing test results, strictly implementing the code of practice
and procedures of the slaughterhouses, stepping up staff training to
increase their vigilance, strengthening the monitoring by escalating to the
senior management level in case of any unusual test results; improving the
live pigs transaction record system and heightening spot checks of the
records. These measures are to ensure that the fresh pork supplied to the
retail market has passed through stringent surveillance and are safe and fit
for human consumption. Under the overarching principle of ensuring food
safety, the Government will continue to communicate with the various
stakeholders of the supply chain with a view to perfecting the whole supply
work flow."
On the investigation result of the incident, the Director of Food and
Environmental Hygiene, Miss Vivian Lau, said that according to the
established mechanism and departmental guidelines, samples are collected
from every batch of food animals admitted to the slaughterhouses in Hong
Kong for testing of chemicals and veterinary drug residues. If there are
samples found to be unsatisfactory, the affected batch of the animals will
be detained and destroyed. The slaughtering of pigs should not be started
before negative test results are confirmed. If the pigs concerned are
slaughtered, they should not be released and delivered to the market for
sale.
Miss Lau said, "We have reviewed the whole testing and slaughtering
procedures. The investigation found that after being informed by the
Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) on the preliminary
test result that some pig urine samples failed to pass the test and that
further testing was required, the staff of the Agricultural Chemicals and
Veterinary Drugs Unit (ACVD) of the Centre for Food Safety failed to ensure
that the importer detained the affected pigs in a timely manner and the Meat
Inspection Unit (MIU) of the FEHD in the Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse got all
relevant information. Without obtaining information indicating that the
samples concerned had passed the tests, the MIU staff did not suspend
inspection of the affected pigs nor did they detain the pig carcasses
concerned. When the MIU staff later learned about the preliminary test
results of the affected batch of pigs from the ACVD and started stopping the
delivery of the pigs concerned, some affected pigs had already been
transported out of the slaughterhouse."
"This incident showed that there was room for improvement for the staff of
the two units in following the established procedures and departmental
guidelines. Communication between the parties concerned was also inadequate
and crucial messages were not conveyed at the critical moment. In the end,
they failed to fully function as the gatekeeper, causing some affected pork
entering the market."
"Regarding the tracing of the affected pork, we found that the operator of
the slaughterhouse did not maintain entirely accurate information on the
retail outlets. In addition, different importers imported pigs from one of
the affected farms on August 3 and 4 and some of the pigs from the two
batches were slaughtered at Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse together on August 5.
Since the computer system of the operator did not keep the records of the
importers for distinguishing the two batches of pigs, this made it more
difficult for the FEHD to trace the distribution of the affected pork."
"On following up on the list of the retail outlets, the retail outlets and
the buyers concerned provided their transaction records to us upon our
requests earlier. During verification, we found that some of the transaction
records were incomplete. Further investigation revealed that all of the 27
affected retail outlets announced on August 5 had been supplied with pigs
imported from the affected farms and slaughtered at Sheung Shui
Slaughterhouse on that day. Among them, 11 outlets were supplied with the
affected pigs imported on August 4. The remaining 16 outlets were supplied
with pigs imported on August 3 which had passed the urine test. We have
issued a letter of apology to them."
In view of the investigation result, the FEHD has taken and will take the
following measures:
The FEHD and the AFCD agreed to expedite the notification of urine test
results of pigs. The AFCD will notify the ACVD of the FEHD the results of
the last round of urine test on or before 9.30pm every night. The ACVD will
then inform the staff of the MIU, the slaughterhouse operator and the
importer about the test results. Before a test result confirming that the
pigs are 100 per cent safe is available, the slaughterhouse operator will
not commence slaughtering the pigs. If any problem is found ( i.e. the pigs
fail the test and further testing is needed or the test results are not
available yet), the staff will immediately notify the importers,
slaughterhouse operator, agents and buyers to work together to detain the
affected pigs.
The FEHD has strengthened the monitoring measures. At 9.30pm every night,
the ACVD's staff will notify the management of the test results of the
samples known at that time. Should any unusual circumstances come to light
during the testing, slaughtering or operation, the ACVD and the MIU staff
will immediately report to the management for appropriate follow-up. The
department has also reminded all staff concerned and the slaughterhouse
operator to act strictly according to the established procedures and
departmental guidelines.
The FEHD has reviewed the mode of communication between staff of the two
units. It will also enhance training and conduct drills for the staff
concerned to enhance future communications and ensure timely contingency
response.
To improve the tracing mechanism, the FEHD will form a working group with
relevant stakeholders, including importers, slaughterhouse operator, buyers
and retailers, to discuss the establishment of a reliable record keeping
system to ensure information of the distributors and retail outlets involved
in the transaction is correct in order to facilitate the tracing of
distribution when need arises.
"We believe the above measures can help strengthen monitoring of the
slaughterhouse's operation. We will also exercise stringent control by
strictly following the established procedures and departmental guidelines to
ensure that the pork for sale in the market has passed relevant tests so as
to prevent recurrence of similar incidents and to safeguard food safety and
public health," Miss Lau said.
"I hope members of the public understand that the FEHD staff who work in the
slaughterhouse have all along been performing their duties diligently. The
department will seriously follow up on the problems reflected in the
incident including inadequate internal communication and delays. If any
members of staff are found to have violated rules and regulations, the
department will handle the matter as soon as possible in accordance with the
guidelines and procedures stipulated by the Civil Service Bureau and conduct
the investigation in a fair and impartial manner," she said.
As regards the source of veterinary drug, it was found that the
concentration level of veterinary drug in relevant urine samples was
abnormal. According to past experience, pig farmers attempting to use
veterinary drugs to promote the growth of lean meat would stop the
medication somewhat before discharging the pigs for slaughtering in order to
reduce the chance of detection. As such, the possibility of the farms being
the source of veterinary drugs should be ruled out. The Government will
continue to follow up and work on the incident in order to find out the
cause of the abnormal situation.
Ends/Saturday, August 20, 2016
Issued at HKT 0:24
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Photo
Updated list of retailers
Sequence of events of the incident of pig carcasses with suspicious positive urine test results being released to the market
