The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday said it had culled another 175 goats at two ranches in Changhua County in a nation-wide inspection of sheep ranches for cases of infection with the goat pox virus (GPV).
The culling came after nearly 800 goats infected with GPV were culled at two ranches in Yunlin County’s Siluo Township (西螺) on Wednesday. The animals were slaughtered after two goats in the Yunlin meat wholesale market were found to have symptoms of GPV on April 9.
Huang Kuo-ching (黃國青), deputy director of the COA’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ), said none of the infected animals had entered the retail market.
Vets had spotted the two sick goats in Yunlin County during routine health checks and staff members of the Yunlin animal health inspection and quarantine bureau immediately traveled to the two problem ranches to examine and test all the animals there, Huang said. A ban was also imposed on the movement of animals at both ranches, he said.
Follow-up tests at the BAPHIQ on samples collected at the ranches confirmed that the goats had contracted GPV, a highly contagious disease afflicting small ruminants that is characterized by fever and ocular and nasal discharges. It also causes pox lesions on the skin and on the mucous membranes of the nostrils, mouth and vulva. GPV cannot infect humans and can be destroyed at high temperatures, Huang said.
To prevent the spread of the virus, all of the animals on the four farms were culled and the farms disinfected, Huang said.
Huang said the bureau had informed the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) of the cases. According to OIE regulations, Taiwan will be removed from the list of sheep and goat pox-affected areas if no new cases are reported in the next three years.
Huang said the bureau would procure medications and vaccines to wipe out the disease as soon as possible. The bureau is also investigating the source of the infection, Huang said.
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