Cattle farmers concerned over Kinmen beef `threat'

The debate over whether live cattle should be imported from the outlying island of Kinmen is heating up, with one side raising the specter of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and the other saying that fears are being raised by cattle farmers who fear the competition.

No from Kinmen were invited to a press conference held by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) yesterday.

Instead, Taiwanese cattle farmers and animal rights activists protested the proposed move to import 100 live cattle from Kinmen as a test case.

Imports cattle, pigs and goats were banned after an outbreak of the highly contagious and sometime deadly (for livestock) FMD outbreak in Kinmen in 1999.

The restrictions were relaxed in 2005 to allow animal parts to be exported to Taiwan, but the ban remains for live animals.

Animal activists from the Environmental and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) protested the stress put on the animal during the transit and quarantine process.

The pilot scheme was awaiting the final stamp of approval from the Council of Agriculture (COA), having already cleared the COA's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) requirements.

"Kinmen cattle are now safe," said Huang Kwo-ching (黃國青), director of animal health inspection division at BAPHIQ.

But cattle farmers are fearful that the island's proximity to China will make it an entry point from which contraband cattle from China could enter, potentially allowing a devastating spread of foot and mouth disease.

"Where did the last bout of FMD come from?" asked cattle farmer Huang Mu-tu (黃木土). "From Chinese cattle imported through Kinmen."

"Contraband cattle are only a sanpan ride away," Tien said. "The motivation for profit is too strong. Smugglers will find a way."

Li Tseng-tsai (李增財), the head of Kinmen's Economic Affairs Bureau, said that Taiwanese cattle farmers are not afraid of FMD, but rather of competition from Kinmen beef.

"We have cheap and plentiful feed in the form of grain mash left over from our distillery industry and abundant land for grazing cattle. As long as we can export it, our cattle industry has enormous room for growth," he said, adding that he hopes the number of cattle in Kinmen will rise from 3,000 heads and less than 600 animals slaughtered annually to 20,000 heads with 10,000 slaughtered.

"It would be altogether impossible for contraband cattle to find their way to Kinmen," Hu Hsi-tsai (胡錫載), the head of the the Kinmen Animal and Plant Diseased Control Center told the Taipei Times.

"Calves are registered within a week of birth and eartagged and photographed within a month of birth. They are cold-branded with liquid nitrogen," Hu said.

Following process, "each sale has to be reported and documented. All cattle are tested for FMD and quarantined prior to slaughter," Hu added.

The legislator for Kinmen, the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Wu Cherng-dean (吳成典), was out of the country at the time of the press conference.