The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday denied newspaper allegations that it had covered up an outbreak of bird flu.
However, the council said that a farm in Kaohsiung County was being investigated.
Deputy Council of Agriculture Minister Hu Sing-hwa (胡興華) made the comments in response to a report in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) yesterday that a Tainan chicken farm had culled its birds following the discovery of a H5N2 infection, and that the government wanted to cover up the outbreak to protect the launch of direct cross-strait transportation links.
PHOTO: TANG SHIH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Both the council and the Tainan County Government held press conferences yesterday to rebut the allegation.
The Taiwan Poultry Association also issued a press release saying that there have been no mass slaughterings in Tainan recently.
Hu said the untrue story could damage chicken farmers in Tainan County, which is heavily dependent on the poultry industry and has the most chickens in the country.
Hu said an incident was reported in Kaohsiung County on Oct. 21, in which several birds died from unknown causes.
“After the samples were examined, we found what we suspected to be the H5N2 virus. However, as the death rate of the birds was less than 3 percent — within the normal range for raised poultry — a 23-person expert panel decided that it was not an epidemic,” Hu said.
No respiratory tract infections had been found in the chickens, which is different from how bird flu progresses, he said.
“The panel decided that making a [rash] judgment would cause public panic,” he said.
Avian influenza has many different strains, including H5N1 and H5N2. The H5N1 is highly pathogenic, and can cause fever, coughing, sore throat, muscle aches, pneumonia or even death when transmitted from birds to humans.
Only a suspected H5N2 sample had been found in a Kaohsiung County chicken farm, Hu said, adding: “There is no documentation worldwide that H5N2 could be transferred to humans.”
The panel decided to closely monitor farms within a 3km radius, he said.
Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) told a separate press conference that “a certain county has a sample currently under examination, but it seems like the results are not out yet … but Tainan County absolutely does not have [the bird flu] … This is for sure.”
“The [newspaper] report is not true, and Tainan’s chicken farmers are outraged,” he said.
Meanwhile, lawmakers on the Health, Environment and Labor Committee criticized the Department of Health (DOH) for not being on guard about the potential threat of avian flu from China.
The legislators questioned health officials on what standard procedures or communication channels there were with Chinese health authorities to monitor and control such viruses.
The Chinese Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday that officials had begun destroying and vaccinating poultry after the virus was detected on a chicken farm in Dongtai City and another farm in Haian County, both in Jiangsu Province.
Hong Kong health authorities raised the bird flu alert level to “serious” last week following an outbreak at a farm that killed dozens of chickens. More than 80,000 chickens infected with the H5N1 strain have been culled there.
In addition, Indian officials in West Bengal confirmed an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu virus 10 days ago and begun massive culling operations. Cambodia also began culling poultry near Phnom Penh yesterday, five days after the WHO and the government confirmed a young man from the area had H5N1 bird flu.
Legislators demanded to know whether the DOH was aware of potential threats that the H5N2 strain may mutate into the H5N1 strain, which might more easily infect humans and be passed between humans.
“Don’t let this become another melamine scandal,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) said.
Minister of the Department of Health Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) said that since the virus strain was suspected to be H5N2, the department had authorized the council to handle the matter.
“Even though its is H5N2, it is still cause for worry because it may mutate,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Twu Shiing-jer (??, a former minister of health.
Deputy Director-General of the Centers for Disease Control Lin Ting (林頂) said he had not sought out the centers’ Chinese counterpart to discuss the bird flu situation there.
The DOH should “find out the facts” about the recent bird flu scares in China and Hong Kong and keep the communication channels open with health authorities across the strait in order to obtain information about the virus situation, KMT Legislator Daniel Hwang (黃義交) said.
Last night the COA said Japan had informed Taipei that it had temporarily suspended all imports of poultry from Taiwan.
The H5N2 virus strain was first found on Taiwan in 2004.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AGENCIES
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS