The Council of Agriculture (COA) said it has initiated a migratory bird monitoring program to prevent the spread of the swine flu virus through birds and poultry, two weeks after the virus was found in turkeys on two farms in Chile.
Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Deputy Director Huang Kuo-ching (黃國青) said the serological surveillance would last until April, when the migratory season for birds ends.
The bureau will take serum samples from at least 2,000 migratory birds, he said.
Although no pigs or birds in Taiwan have been found to be infected with the swine flu virus, the COA is taking precautionary measures against the possible spread of the virus by migratory birds.
Huang said that many of the black-faced spoonbills that fly to the wetlands in the south for the winter had already arrived and his bureau had started collecting bird excretions for examination and it was also taking serum samples from poultry farms.
If the swine flu virus is found, the bureau would expand the surveillance program to all poultry and pig farms within a radius of 3km of where the infection is discovered, he said.
A report by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said the swine flu virus found in turkeys in Chile corresponds to the same virus strain that has been circulating among humans in Chile this winter.
The Chilean turkey cases have caused global concern of possible cross-infection of humans, animals and birds, which could exacerbate the epidemic, Huang said.
In related news, a 49-year-old man from Jhonghe City (中和), Taipei County, died of swine flu yesterday, bringing the nation’s death toll to seven.
A press release issued by the Taipei County Government’s Department of Health said follow-up observation on the man’s three family members showed they were not infected with the virus.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) told a press conference yesterday that 16 new cases of severe swine flu had been reported, bringing to 128 the total number of hospitalized cases countrywide.
The swine flu epidemic has escalated, driving up sales of face masks around the country, but has not yet reached its peak, Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) and CDC Director-General Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
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