The coast guard on Sunday raided a fishing boat at a harbor in Hsinchu County and seized a shipment of frozen geese from China, the Council of Agriculture said.
The shipment had an estimated market value of NT$180,000, as the price of geese has soared to about NT1,350 per bird since an avian flu outbreak in March led to mass cullings on poultry farms.
The boat’s three crewmen and their captain, surnamed Chen, have been turned over to the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly violating the Statute for the Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Diseases (動物傳染病防治條例), the council said.
Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Deputy Director Shih Tai-hua (施泰華) said that a total of 298.5kg of frozen geese was impounded.
The birds had been individually packaged, with labels in simplified Chinese characters indicting that they originating in China’s Shandong Province, Shih added.
That province was infected by a highly pathogenic strain of avian flu, which meant the shipment would have put Taiwan at risk, he said.
The bureau on Sunday night sent a team to Nanliao Fishing Harbor (南寮漁港), where the boat was docked, to disinfect the shipment and collect samples to send to the Animal Health Research Institute for testing, Shih added.
The shipment was confiscated by Customs officials and is to be destroyed later, he said.
Shih urged the public not to smuggle meat or livestock, adding that the maximum penalty for violating the law is seven years in prison and a fine of NT$3 million (US$90,813).
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