China Reportedly Finds More Dead Pigs Floating In River Hundreds Of Miles Away From First Discovery

The discovery of 900 dead pigs in a Shanghai river was worrying enough. However, that number now appears to be a massive underestimation — the latest reports suggest that there may have been more like 16,000 dead pigs floating in the river.

As if this weren't cause enough for concern, Danwei points to more reports in Chinese media about dead ducks and dead pigs. Perhaps the ducks are unrelated, but the 50 dead pigs in Hunan province are certainly an alarming coincidence.

What's most alarming might be the geography here. Check out this map, which shows the approximate location of the first discovery of dead pigs (the Jiaxing area of Zhejiang province), and the new one (Changsha, Hunan). They are over 628 miles apart via road.

People are starting to get a little concerned — Patrick Chovanec, the Chief Strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management, tweeted the Danwei story with a note: "Something really strange is going on."

While a farmer has confessed to dumping the dead pigs in the Shanghai river, the sight of the pigs seems to be affecting consumer confidence in pork. Taiwanese news outlet WantChinaTimes cites Ministry of Commerce data that shows wholesale prices of pork have fallen for four consecutive weeks as of March 17, accumulated decline over the period reaching eight percent.