Workers sterilize a river in Sanshui district of Foshan city, south China's Guangdong Province, on Tuesday, March 2, 2010, after 72 dead pigs dumped into the water were recently discovered to have contaminated it. [Photo: ycwb.com]

The carcasses of 72 pigs that died of respiratory infections were found to have contaminated a river in Sanshui district of Foshan city in south China's Guangdong Province.

The local newspaper "Yangcheng Evening News" received reports from Sanshui villagers who complained that a number of dead pigs floating in the local river were producing a terrible odor.

A pig breeder who lives near the river said she and some other local breeders threw their dead pigs directly into the river after they discovered the animals died of a disease in the past month.

But two pig breeders who live next door to her refuted her story.

The district authorities dispatched more than 40 workers to collect the dead pigs. By early Wednesday, the workers netted a total of 72 carcasses from the river and appropriately disposed of them. They also sterilized the river thoroughly.

So far, there has been no evidence indicating any link between the pig deaths and hoof-and-mouth disease, according to an official with the district's animal quarantine station.