The Council of Agriculture yesterday maintained it did not cover up and defer the notifications of several H5N2 bird-flu outbreaks in the past two years, despite heavy criticism from lawmakers.
Challenged by a number of lawmakers in the legislature’s Economics Committee, Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) repeatedly sidestepped questions on whether or not the council reported a highly pathogenic H5N2 avian flu outbreak in 2010 to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) as low-risk outbreak.
Council officials were grilled by lawmakers across party lines yesterday over the announcement on Saturday that 57,500 chickens had been culled in areas around Greater Tainan and Changhua County because of an outbreak of the H5N2 avian influenza strain.
Photo: CNA
Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) and Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the council had notified the OIE of a low-risk avian influenza in 2010, even though it had already received a Intravenous Pathogenicity Index (IVPI) test’s results which showed readings above 1.2 — an indicator that the strain was highly pathogenic.
Readings greater than 1.2 in an IVPI test on a six-week-old chicken indicate a highly pathogenic strain.
Taiwan’s credibility would be in jeopardy if it had intentionally lied to the OIE, Kuan said.
In response, Chen Bao-ji said the notification was a “mistake,” but he refused to say whether it was a cover-up or comment on former Council of Agriculture minister Chen Wu-hsiung’s (陳武雄) handling of the outbreak.
He also sidestepped a question posed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), who asked if the council had covered up or deferred reporting any avian flu outbreak, by promising to shorten the 28-day evaluation period adopted by the OIE on avian flu assessments to better prepare for future outbreaks.
Lawmakers and council officials spent a majority of the committee session debating the standard operational procedures when assessing the pathogenicity of bird-flu outbreaks, with Chen Bao-ji and Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Deputy Director-General Huang Kwo-ching (黃國青) saying that multiple factors, including the IVPI index, clinical observations, pathological changes, as well as further laboratory tests, were considered when the council makes an assessment.
Lawmakers said that an IVPI reading above 1.2 should be “the golden and only rule,” according to council regulations established in 2003, adding that the council’s “comprehensive assessment process” created a “grey area” in its assessments.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) questioned the timing of the announcement of the latest H5N2 outbreak, saying it could have been a tactic to shift public attentions away from the government’s other hotly-debated policy of allowing US beef imports that contain traces of the animal feed additive ractopamine.
Kevin H. J. Lee (李惠仁), the freelance journalist who exposed the latest outbreaks and who accused the council of covering them up and deferring its notifications to the OIE, agreed, saying the council had placed “administrative concerns” over its professionalism and obligations.
Lee, who was invited to testify before the committee, spent more than six years investigating avian influenza outbreaks while shooting a documentary entitled A Secret That Can’t Be Exposed (不能戳的秘密), and reported a possible lethal case of H5N2 in Fangyuan Township (芳苑), Changhua County, to the council in December last year.
Lee said the council concealed the truth about the Changhua outbreak for more than 70 days, in much the same way as it had with the case in 2010.
The committee proposed establishing a panel to conduct a further investigation into possible malfeasance and demanded that the council submit all avian flu-related documents dated after December 2008 and that it review its standard operating procedures on the identification and notification of bird-flu outbreaks.
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