Tyson said most of the hogs slaughtered at its plants are purchased from about 2,000 independent farmers.

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

And they raised a total of 310 million broilers and slaughtered 455 million last year, accounting for 10 percent of the country's total production.

"These hogs will be slaughtered gradually from January to June this year, so the supply in the first half of this year will be at a high level,"Chen said.

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.

The number of hogs slaughtered was 109 million, up 44.9 percent in the first half, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

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.

In the meantime, more hogs have been slaughtered for market, and total import volume from January to September reached about 3.29 million metric tons, up 132.2 percent year-on-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.

Tariffs and African swine fever made 2019 a bad year for Chinese pork consumers, cutting supply and driving up prices as tens of millions of hogs in Asia were slaughtered in an effort to halt the spread of the disease.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs urged local authorities to provide financial support as soon as possible, guide pig farmers to restore production, and honor subsidies offered to pig farmers who have slaughtered pigs to prevent and control the swine fever.

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.

In the first six months, the total number of slaughtered broiler chickens hit 4.2 billion nationwide, up 15.8 percent year-on-year.

More than one million sick pigs had been slaughtered across the country by the end of April since ASF was first reported in August in Shenbei New District of Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province.

The DCE said in a statement the standardization of hog breeds was increasing, and with most large producers using similar piglet supply, feed and technical services, slaughtered pigs and lean meat rates were also more uniform.