Two Yunlin County chicken farms and a New Taipei City poultry slaughterhouse have been confirmed as infected with the highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza virus, resulting in thousands of chickens being culled, officials said yesterday.
Authorities disinfected one of the farms after culling 4,000 chickens yesterday, the Yunlin County Animal and Plant Disease Control Center said.
About half of the 56,000 chickens at the other farm died during the past week after contracting the virus and authorities were expected to cull the remaining birds later yesterday, the center said.
A total of 62 farms in Yunlin have been confirmed to have the virus since the beginning of this year, the center said.
Authorities on Monday ordered a New Taipei City poultry slaughterhouse to suspend operations for 24 hours and disinfect the premises and nearby areas after chickens there were confirmed as being infected.
A total of 93 slaughtered chickens initially quarantined and frozen at the slaughterhouse following the flu scare have since been destroyed, New Taipei City Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office officials said.
New Taipei City Agriculture Department Commissioner Lee Wen (李玟) said although the public needs to remain vigilant, the virus identified in Taiwan is not transmittable to humans. As long as people wash their hands frequently, purchase meat with certified labels and eat only well-cooked food, they face no risk from avian flu.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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