Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that deaths brought about by eating cooked chicken products would be compensated to the tune of NT$5 million.
"The government has done its best to avert an outbreak. If anyone contracts bird flu after eating thoroughly cooked poultry, NT$5 million will be given in compensation," Yu said at the legislature in response to a request by Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Chen Chien-ming (
While Chen had asked that the government offer NT$3 million in compensation, Yu decided to raise the amount to NT$5 million in a show of confidence.
Meanwhile, the Council of Agriculture's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said Wednesday evening eight poultry farms in Tainan, Changhua, Miaoli, Taoyuan and Nantou counties were affected by the H5N2 strain of the bird flu virus -- the relatively benign cousin to the deadly H5N1 strain.
The bureau has announced that all 230,000 chickens on the farms are to be culled within three days, while poultry farms within a radius of 3km of the farms are to be closely monitored.
This is the first report of the bird flu virus in northern Taiwan and the largest cull to date.
Mass culls on two farms in Tainan county were scheduled to begin today and on Monday. Some 88,000 chickens on the two farms will be destroyed. Some 800 chickens in Miaoli are also set to be slaughtered on Monday.
Poultry farmers have been asked to stop giving food and water to the chickens in preparation for the culls. Chloral hydrate, a tranquilizer, will also be given to the chickens.
The entire cull is estimated to take 24 hours.
The geographic locations of the affected farms are in line with the paths of migratory birds, according to the bureau.
Initial analysis of the affected areas points to the spread of the virus through migratory birds, but the bureau has not ruled out the possibility of virus transmission through vaccines for poultry.
Farmers will be compensated NT$100 for each chicken.
Previous culls have resulted in the deaths of 98,000 chickens in the central and southern regions.
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