Two more poultry farms in Pingtung County have been infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N2 strain and another H5 subtype, following an alert issued on Friday regarding an avian flu outbreak in Japan and other countries, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.
Japan, South Korea, Italy and other European countries are experiencing avian flu epidemics, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Deputy Director-General Shih Tai-hua (施泰華) said on Friday.
Japan is one of the areas worst hit by the virus, with a farm in Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture found to have been infected with an H5 subtype virus, prompting the council to ban poultry imported from the country, Shih said, adding that the farm culled 92,000 chickens on Thursday.
Photo provided by the Pingtung County Animal Disease Control Center
Since the beginning of this year, five farms in Taiwan — three in Yunlin County’s Dongshih (東勢) and Huwei (虎尾) townships and two in Pingtung’s Yanpu Township (鹽埔) — were confirmed to have been infected with H5 viruses, and 65,753 fowls had been culled as of 6pm yesterday, council data showed.
A poultry farm in Yanpu had 39,000 ducks culled yesterday, according to the council.
From Tuesday until March 31, duck farmers are required to present examination reports that prove their ducks are not infected with bird flu, or they cannot send their ducks to slaughterhouses or markets, Shih said yesterday.
Poultry farmers should make their coops as clean and warm as possible, since chickens are more likely to be infected with bird flu in cold weather, the council said.
The council said it would continue monitoring 90 chicken farms until March 31, while 360 farms raising egg-laying chickens are monitored throughout the year.
While most infection cases are reported in the central and southern regions, the council also received reports about people dumping dead fowls in rivers in northern Taoyuan and Chiayi County.
People who dump dead birds or fail to report infections face a fine of NT$50,000 to NT$1 million (US$1,689 and US$33,784), it said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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