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Ban set for sale and slaughter of live poultry in markets

"Taiwan is living in the bird flu danger zone."

Chen Chien-jen, avian flu prevention panel

With less than three months to go before a ban against slaughtering live poultry in traditional markets goes into effect, the policy change is gathering opposition from poultry farmers who say their livelihoods are threatened by the move.

Cages full of live chickens continue to be stacked up in traditional markets all over the country. Customers can pick the chicken they want from the cages as they have always been able to do, but all that is set to change on April 1.

Poultry industry representatives say that the ban will devastate chicken farmers and sellers, especially purveyors of specialty varieties of chicken most identifiable by their feathers.

"All over the world, communities of Chinese heritage prefer to eat freshly-killed chicken," said a representative of the Poultry Association who wished to remain unnamed because of ongoing negotiations with the Council of Agriculture. "You cannot change that preference."

"We have black-boned chickens, pearl chickens, black feathered and red feathered wild chickens. All these varieties fetch higher prices at the market, but if you strip the plumage from the birds, you are also stripping the consumer's means of visually identifying the variety," said the representative.

In a Council of Agriculture press conference on the issue several months ago, public health experts said the ban is a necessary measure to prevent the spread of bird flu.

"Taiwan is living in the bird flu danger zone," said Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), convener of the Executive Yuan's special avian flu prevention panel. "Eating safely-slaughtered poultry does not present a risk ... Contact with live birds, however, does."

"Hong Kong was actually hit with bird flu in 1997, but they did not choose to ban live chickens in traditional markets," rebutted the representative. "Instead, they are installing safety precautions such as screens that separate the consumers from the birds."

An official who wished to remain unnamed at the council's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said that the rule changes are scheduled to go ahead as planned.

"We not only need to prevent physical contact between the live birds and the consumers but to make sure they are not breathing the same air," said the official.
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