Contrary to earlier official statements, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has spread from Yunlin County to neighboring Chiayi County, Council of Agriculture (COA) chairman Lin Hsiang-nung (
More than 80 percent of 131 cattle on a ranch in Liuchiao township (
Earlier yesterday, Watson Sung (
Lee Chin-lung (
Feng Han-peng (馮翰鵬), a professor from National Chunghsing University, claims that 60 to 70 percent of the Yunlin cows showed symptoms of FMD before they were slaughtered.
Feng was the first veterinarian to inspect the sick cows and was the person who informed the COA of a possible FMD outbreak.
But no one will know for sure about the exact condition of the animals, as all the cows have been slaughtered and incinerated, said Feng.
Meanwhile, many dairy farmers in Yunlin have disinfected their facilities and purchased FMD vaccinations for their herds.
Dairy operators in southern Taiwan have begun to complain about the government's shoddy handling of the FMD outbreak, and say that milk sales have dropped.
This is the third outbreak of FMD in as many years. A virulent strain of the disease devastated Taiwan's hog industry in 1997, forcing authorities to slaughter 4 million out of 7 million swine.
Inoculation against the disease is nearly 90 percent complete among pigs, according to the COA, but many cows and sheep have not yet been vaccinated.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
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