Print

Mail

wiki links

Taiwan still free of bird flu: COA

Despite being surrounded by countries struggling to deal with bird flu, Taiwan remains unaffected by the devastating disease, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.

Chiang Yi-nan (江益男), director general of the COA's Animals and Plants Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, said yesterday that chicken deaths in Taiwan reported recently had nothing to do with bird flu.

Earlier this month, 55,000 chickens on two farms in Changhua and Chiayi counties were slaughtered after the discovery of H5N2, a weaker strain of bird flu.

Last week, thousands of chickens were discovered to be sick or dying on three farms in Chiayi County's Liuchiao township. After analyzing samples from the farms, scientists at the Animal Health Research Institute found evidence of both the H5N2 strain and the Newcastle virus, which poses a constant threat to poultry around the world.

A farm in Tainan County's Chia-li township then reported that one-tenth of its 30,000 chickens had died since Jan. 13. Again, both the H5N2 and Newcastle viruses were found on the farm.

"The unusually low temperatures of late have made chickens particularly vulnerable, and some had received the Newcastle virus vaccine. Some of them died from other complications involving bacterial infections," Chiang said at a press conference yesterday.

On Wednesday last week, the government issued a ban on the removal of any animal from its farm. Officials said that all farms affected by infectious diseases would be closely monitored for at least three months.

Bureau Deputy Director General Yeh Ying (葉瑩) said the government would continue to track down sources of the H5N2 virus.

"We don't rule out the possibility that migratory birds or smuggled bird-flu vaccines are involved," Yeh said.

People who smuggle bird-flu vaccines face three years' imprisonment. Those administering bird-flu vaccines to chickens face a fine between NT$6,000 and NT$18,000.

Yeh said that Taiwan had done its best to protect itself from the more prevalent avian influenza, also known as H5N1, which is wreaking havoc in neighboring countries.

Thailand is scheduled to hold a regional summit tomorrow to discuss the outbreak of bird flu. Yeh said that an invitation had been passed onto the bureau by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Yeh said the bureau might send an independent expert as its representative to attend the conference.

"The representative's main responsibility will be clearly informing the international community that avian influenza has not occurred in Taiwan," Yeh told the Taipei Times.

Beginning yesterday, Taiwan has banned imports of birds and bird-related products from Indonesia, where millions of chickens have died due to an outbreak of bird flu.

Officials said the ban would have no impact on poultry supplies to domestic markets because Indonesia, where Newcastle disease has taken hold, was already subject to a boycott.

Pet birds from Indonesia would also be subject to the ban.

Taiwan has also placed bans on bird imports and related products from other countries affected by bird flu.

The countries affected are South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand.
This story has been viewed 2915 times.