Chopra and Democratic FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter said the $5 billion penalty may be less than Facebook's gains from violating users' privacy.

With pig production fully recovering in the second quarter, the average price of these animals for slaughter dropped below the cost line from June to September.

He added that as the number of pigs for slaughter will rise until the first quarter of next year, the nationwide pork oversupply will continue for a while.

Chen also asked farmers not to blindly reduce the number of animals for slaughter based on the current rise in pig prices, or to rush to expand production capacity, in case there are bigger losses.

Chen Guanghua, vice-director of the ministry's Bureau of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, said the recent dramatic drop in pork prices was mainly because the number of hogs available for slaughter greatly increased and pork consumption decreased after the Spring Festival holiday.

By the end of September, the number of hogs available for slaughter had reached 370 million, Wei said.

Traditional fishermen use machines to slaughter fish, but this method can spoil the freshness of the meat.

Last year, the province saw around 6.3 million Tibetan sheep available for slaughter and produced 133,000 tonnes of meat, up 8 percent and 10.8 percent respectively compared with the figures at the end of 2015, said Wang Yuhu, head of the department.

In October, the number of hogs available for slaughter soared 26.9 percent year-on-year, and that of the breeding sows in stock surged 31.5 percent from the same period last year.

The year-on-year increase in the number of hogs in stock indicates that the number of hogs for slaughter will also witness a year-on-year increase in five to six months, which could fundamentally relieve the tight market supply, the ministry said.

Some of the pigs that were fostered earlier are ready for slaughter, while more frozen pork products are exiting warehouses.

However, the smart pigs from Aliyun and JD are not ready for slaughter for the market just yet.