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.
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