Taiwan, to keep foot-and-mouth disease from its door, yesterday suspended imports of cloven-hoofed animals and their products from the EU.
The ban covers cloven-hoofed animals, their meat, innards, milk, bonemeal, skin, sperm and embryos, the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture said.
PHOTO: AFP
"According to the Paris-based International Epizootic Organization, nine of the 15 EU countries are infected areas, but we have extended the ban to the other six countries," agriculture council official Liu Ping-jen said.
The nine infected nations are Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Britain.
The agriculture council has put up signs at airports warning departing passengers not to visit foreign farms, and has prepared disinfecting pads at airports for arriving passengers to wipe their shoes.
Since foot-and-mouth disease broke out in Britain on Feb. 21, the epidemic has spread to 250 British farms. More than 90 countries have banned meat imports from the EU.
Foot-and-mouth disease has also erupted in Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Turkey.
After an absence of half a century, the disease broke out in Taiwan in 1997, resulting in the slaughter of four million pigs.
Taiwan has been categorized as a foot-and-mouth infected region since March 1997, when thousand of hogs were slaughtered following a string of outbreaks that resulted in the end of Taiwan's lucrative pork exports.
Taiwan's pork imports from the EU totaled a mere 16 tonnes last year, compared with the nation's total pork imports of 34,523 tonnes, according to customs data. All the EU pork came from Denmark.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has imposed a temporary ban on the import of frozen and canned sheep and cow products from Taiwan, Iran and India the official Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday.
The Saudi Ministry of Commerce took the decision following WHO and media reports on the appearance of foot-and-mouth disease in these three countries.
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