US pork processor Smithfield Foods has halted hog slaughter operations at its pork processing facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina, over Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv).
The Tar Heel site has shortened the slaughter operations schedule this week to four days, reported Reuters citing sources familiar with the matter.
It is considered as the company's largest pork processing plant with an estimated slaughter capacity of around 34,000 hogs a day.
The company stated that it does not comment on daily operations of the processing plants.
The move comes following alleged reduction in working days by US pork processors over shortage in supplies.
Sources said that the company would also reduce operations at its Clinton, North Carolina plant.
In the US, PEDv was identified in May 2013; swine specialists estimate that up to five million hogs have died since then.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, about 112 million hogs were slaughtered in the country last year.
