Shanghai, August 8:

Four local Chinese officials have been fired for failing to dispose properly of infected pigs amid efforts to stop the spread of a swine-borne disease that has killed 39 people, a newspaper reported today. Li Mingzhong, chief of the Animal Husbandry and Food Bureau in Sichuan province’s Zizhong county, allegedly claimed that carcasses of 78 dead pigs were properly disposed of when they had not been, the China Daily newspaper reported. The government has ordered stringent anti-disease measures in Sichuan, where 208 people have been stricken since June by an illness blamed on Streptococcus suis, a bacteria carried by pigs. Li and three colleagues were accused of failing to verify that the pigs had been safely buried deep underground and trying to deceive investigators, the China Daily said. It identified the other officials as Liu Wei, Jiang Xiaogang and Chen Bin. An infected person died on Saturday.