BEIJING, July 25 (Reuters) - A 49-year-old man from southern China has contracted the pig-borne disease Streptococcus suis and is now in hospital where his condition is stable, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. The man, from Shenzhen, next to Hong Kong, had not left the city recently and none of his family or colleagues have fallen ill, the report said. It did not say where or how he might have picked up the disease, but added the city was ramping up checks of meat and had not found any sick animals. In the summer of 2005, Streptococcus suis bacteria, contracted from slaughtering, handling or eating infected pigs, was linked to the deaths of nearly 40 people in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the centre of China's pork industry. Concerns have been growing about China's food industry, where the temptation to cut corners by unregulated companies operating on thin margins has outpaced the ability of regulatory agencies to enforce standards. About one million pigs have died from a variation of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus in an outbreak that began in May last year. The virus is unlikely to spread to humans, leading Chinese veterinarians have said.
