Animal and livestock disease control authorities in Changhua County raised an alert on Thursday against a possible outbreak of African swine fever that has reportedly wreaked havoc on hog farms in northern China recently.
Officials at the Animal Disease Control Center of Changhua County quoted foreign news wire services as reporting that an outbreak of a disease similar to African swine fever has been reported at hog farms in areas of northern China's Heilongjiang Province, bordering Russia.
Russia has reportedly reinforced its controls along the border with China in a bid to keep the hog disease at bay.
CHINESE PIG FARMERS
Changhua officials urged hog farm operators in the county and the rest of the country to strengthen disease prevention measures and to avoid inviting their Chinese counterparts to visit local farms or livestock markets.
They also called for members of Taiwan's public not to purchase pork and pork products from unknown sources.
They said that African swine fever is a highly contagious, generalized disease of pigs caused by a virus known as iridovirus.
The virus resists inactivation and can persist in meat for up to 15 weeks, processed ham for up to 6 months, and up to one month in contaminated livestock pens.
The disease is endemic to most of southern Africa and on the Iberian peninsula of Europe.
Since the 1960s, outbreaks have occurred in France, Italy, Malta, Belgium, Holland, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Outbreaks occur when domestic pigs come in contact with carrier ticks, rather than from direct transmission from other pigs or warthogs.
EXCRETIONS, SECRETIONS
In Europe, direct transmission is more important as the virus is shed in high concentration in the animals' excretions and secretions during the acute phase the disease.
After an incubation period of five to 15 days, the disease may manifest itself in a number of forms. Animals found to be in the peracute phase of the disease usually die soon after discovery, while pigs found to be in the acute phase of the disease can exhibit a variety of symptoms.
In the beginning, infected animals will exhibit high fevers of up to 42oC, followed by one to two days of loss of appetite and recumbency, skin blotching, diarrhea or miscarriages. Mortality is close to 100 percent within seven days, the Changhua animal disease control officials said.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS