The government yesterday announced a ban on import of birds and other products from Malaysia, where an outbreak of deadly bird flu was reported in a remote village near the border with Thailand on Wednesday.
According to the Council of Agriculture yesterday, it had obtained information from Singapore's Agri-food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) of another outbreak of the deadly avian flu in Malaysia. The council's Animals and Plants Inspection and Quarantine Bureau later announced a ban on the import of birds and poultry products from Malaysia to block possible spread of the virus here.
"Since Taiwan remains an area unaffected by the virus, we have issued the ban in a bid to protect not only people but also our poultry industry," the bureau's Deputy Director General Yeh Ying (葉瑩), said.
However, pet bird merchants are used to introduce several kinds of pet bird from Malaysia. Council officials yesterday stressed the risk of introducing pet birds from areas affected by deadly bird flu.
According to media reports, Malaysia yesterday euthanized hundreds of birds in a village where the outbreak was discovered in order to prevent a wider transmission of bird flu, which killed 27 people in Southeast Asia earlier this year. Malaysian officials said the source of the outbreak was not known, but they were eyeing the border with Thailand, the world's fourth largest chicken exporter, until an outbreak of bird flu hit this year prompted the cull of more than 60 million birds.
Bureau officials said that they are monitoring not only Asia but also the world for another possible outbreak of the virus. Early this month, Taiwan added South Africa to its list of areas banned from exporting poultry products here.
Bureau officials yesterday reiterated the necessity of being alert when traveling to areas affected by the deadly avian bird flu strain H5N1. These areas include South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the southern US.
Despite being surrounded by countries struggling to deal with the H5N1 bird flu strain, Taiwan remains clear of that virus. The nation's poultry farmers, however, have been urged by the council to monitor their flocks more closely because farms have been affected by the less pathogenic H5N2 strain earlier this year.
Since March, no similar cases have been reported in the country.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
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