BRASILIA/BEIJING (Reuters) – The local government in the Chinese city of Shenzhen on Thursday identified a Brazilian meat plant owned by Aurora, the country’s third largest processor of chicken and pork, as the source of chicken wings that tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The Shenzhen government identified the plant by its registration number in a posting on its website, that when checked against Brazilian records linked it to an Aurora facility in Brazil’s Southern state of Santa Catarina.
Aurora, an unlisted company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Brazil’s agriculture ministry said it was consulting with its technical team on the matter, without elaborating.
The ministry has previously said there is no evidence that coronavirus is transmitted in food or food packaging.
As of mid-July, China had blocked six Brazilian meat plants over concerns about coronavirus amid reports of thousands of cases spreading throughout the industry.
(Reporting by Jake Spring in Brasilia, Ana Mano in Sao Paulo and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)
