Eight Chinese officials have been dismissed for dereliction of duty for sale of pork from dead and diseased pigs in eastern Jiangxi Province.
Pork from dead and sick pigs from Gao'an City were suspected to have entered the market in at least seven provinces with an annual sales revenue of more than 20 million yuan (USD 3.3 million), state-run CCTV reported.
The eight dismissed officials are from the municipal and Yangxu township animal husbandry and commerce authorities, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
So far the Gao'an authorities have sealed a slaughterhouse, destroyed an illegal slaughtering site and detained 12 suspects.
A joint work team from the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Public Security have arrived in Gao'an to further investigate the case.
Gao'an is one of China's major pork producers with more than 2 million pigs slaughtered and 1.1 million in livestock every year, according to media reports.
The swine industry has a three percent mortality rate from disease.
An estimated 90,000 pigs die from disease in Gao'an annually. The dead pigs needs to be dealt with according to strict health standards.
