New Pig Skyscraper Could Lead to Larger Disease Outbreaks; Critics Share Concerns

A new pig skyscraper in China is expected to butcher millions of pigs every year.

It is considered to be the largest single-building pig farm across the globe, with an overall capacity of 1.2 million pigs yearly.

The Chinese government explained that this new 26-story pig skyscraper is the solution to the never-ending demand for pork.

As of writing, pork is the most popular animal protein in China.

Now, here are other things you need to know about this new pig-slaughtering skyscraper.

New Pig Skyscraper in China

According to The Guardian's latest report, the new pig skyscraper, called "Pig Palace," in China was constructed by the Hubei Zhongxin Kaiwei Modern Farming.

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The company's general manager, Jin Lin, explained that they planned to invest in ready-to-cook food production.

However, they saw modern agriculture as a promising sector, as well as an opportunity to use its own construction materials to build the pig farm.

The Pig Palace has temperature, gas, and ventilation-controlled conditions. The pig skyscraper also has over 30,000 automatic feeders that can feed the swine.

These automatic feeding spots can be controlled with a click of a button, thanks to a central control room.

Aside from these, The Sun reported that the pig farm also has biosecurity control system, which is added to the scientific diet. This ensures that quality meat is produced.

Although this new pig farm looks promising, critics claim it could increase the risk of larger animal disease outbreaks.

Larger Animal Disease Outbreaks Could Happen

Many health experts are now sharing their concerns regarding the new pig skyscraper in China.

They explained that intensive facilities can decrease the chance of domesticated and wild animals of contracting disease.

However, Matthew Hayek, a New York University professor in environmental studies, said that if a disease breaches these intensive animal facilities, larger disease outbreaks could happen because they are enclosed.

The chair professor at One Health at City University of Hong Kong, Dirk Pfeiffer, also explained that the risk of infectious pathogen is increased if there's a higher density of animals.

He added that disease mutations could even happen.

You can visit this link to learn more about the Pig Palace.

In 2019, Vietnam culled millions of pigs because the African swine fever.

The U.S. was also forced to seize million pounds of smuggled pork from China because of this virus.

For more news updates about pigs and other animals, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

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Written by Griffin Davis