A farm in Chiayi yesterday became the nation’s latest poultry farm to test positive for the highly pathogenic H5N6 avian influenza virus strain.
Comprehensive test results should be available today, the Chiayi County Department of Agriculture said, adding that county inspectors found contaminated chickens at an unlicensed butcher’s shop in a traditional market.
The news came after a turkey farm in Tainan was on Sunday confirmed to have H5N6-infected birds, following the first confirmed H5N6 infection in the nation last week at a poultry farm in Hualien County and a case in Yilan County on Saturday.
Photo: CNA
Later yesterday, another poultry farm in Hualien was also declared infected.
A case of H5N2 contamination was confirmed at a chicken farm in the county’s Taisi Township (台西), Yulin County Animal and Plant Disease Control Center Director Liao Pei-chih (廖培志) said separately yesterday.
The confirmation resulted in the culling of 3,900 chickens, bringing the total number of birds culled in the county to more than 130,000 so far this year, he said, adding that the authorities then disinfected nearby areas to prevent the spread of the virus.
Photo: CNA
The Cabinet on Sunday established a Central Epidemic Response Center.
The center held its first meeting yesterday, during which Premier Lin Chuan (林全) called on local governments to work with the central government to make preparations and adopt measures to contain the disease.
He added that if the outbreak continues, the Cabinet would take further measures, such as imposing border or movement controls.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) yesterday urged people to avoid visiting live poultry markets or poultry farms and not to eat raw eggs to avoid H5N6 infections.
However, Chuang said humans can only become infected with the virus if a person is exposed to an environment where the virus is active, so only poultry farmers and personnel culling the infected animals are now at risk.
The centers have been working closely with the Council of Agriculture and local health bureaus since Feb. 5 to ensure that personnel who are responsible for culling and disposal of carcasses wear protective clothing and N95 surgical masks, he said.
Photo: CNA
All personnel connected with the recent cases have been monitored by the centers for possible infection, Chuang said, adding that aside from checking on such personnel every day, the centers have also instructed medical facilities to ask patients with flu-like symptoms whether they had been near poultry carcasses.
The centers have prepared 1.97 million N95 surgical masks, 510,000 sets of protective clothing and about 45 million other types of surgical masks to serve as disease prevention equipment, Chuang said.
The Taipei Department of Environmental Protection yesterday warned the public not to feed wild birds, adding that the maximum fine for feeding wild birds is NT$6,000.
The department would be monitoring areas in the city such as the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall complex and Daan Forest Park, which usually attract flocks of wild birds, department official Yang Wei-hsiu (楊維修) said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday called a news conference, demanding that the central government make the “maximum effort” to prevent a national outbreak.
The situation is “a matter of national security,” KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said, urging the government to remain on guard, as farmers might conceal incidents of contamination at their facilities.
KMT Legislator Arthur Chen (陳宜民) called on Taiwanese travelers and businesspeople to remain vigilant, as cases of H5N6 infection in humans have been reported in China.
Additional reporting by Huang Shu-li and CNA
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of