The nation’s first case of African swine fever (ASF) is not only a major crisis for the pork industry, but has also put the Taichung City Government under the spotlight, revealing sloppiness and incompetence in handling the crisis.
The central government on Oct. 22 confirmed Taiwan’s first case of ASF at a pig farm in Taichung, and implemented measures, including temporary bans on transporting and slaughtering pigs, and using food waste as feed (the most likely source of the virus) to feed pigs, to prevent ASF from spreading and destroying the domestic pork industry.
The Taichung Agriculture Bureau initially said it has “done whatever has to be done,” but over the following days, the city government changed its story several times, and further investigations and tests have found more issues of concern.
The inconsistency in its stories — such as saying that a contracted veterinarian went to the farm on Oct. 14 when pigs suddenly died and then changing the story every day for five consecutive days, uncertainty about the vet’s and vet aide’s roles, and questions regarding why the pigs were not tested after the first report — has begun to erode the public’s trust in the city government’s grasp of the situation, let alone its ability to effectively control it.
Other discoveries have raised further concerns about the city government’s attitude and incompetence, including discrepancies in the number of dead pigs and reported abnormal deaths, which has led to a criminal investigation into alleged document forgery; failure to get the farm to upload data regarding food waste processed into feed, which is mandatory; the farm still testing positive for ASF despite all pigs being killed and the city government saying it had disinfected the site several times, so the military had to step in to thoroughly disinfect it on Friday; and disposing the city’s food waste in an open-air landfill (wild boars could reach the waste and eat it).
After the series of mistakes were discovered, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taichung City Council caucus on Friday filed a petition to the Control Yuan asking it to investigate Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and her officials for “nonfeasance or misfeasance in office.”
Politicians and members of the public questioned if government budget cuts and freezes — such as the 60 percent cut in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency’s (APHIA) promotional fees — by opposition lawmakers this year could have diminished public awareness of not bringing pork into Taiwan, which is widely believed to be the source of the ASF.
It is mind-boggling that while Lu and the handling of the crisis is being investigated, and central government agencies are stepping in to help, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus is trying to shift all the blame onto the central government.
KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) claimed the outbreak happened because President William Lai (賴清德), who was premier in 2018, had not imposed a nationwide ban on using food waste as pig feed, and that the failure in border control was due to Lai being “too invested” in the mass recall against KMT lawmakers.
Customs checks at the airport have been tightened since the outbreak to prevent travelers bringing pork into the country, but KMT Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) criticized the government, saying it was “stricter than the [Chinese] Communist Party” and inconveniencing people.
KMT lawmakers in 2023 also proposed to freeze a large portion of the APHIA’s budget, because “customs check penalties were too heavy,” which luckily did not pass.
Although the KMT and the Taichung City Government have repeatedly called on the central and local governments to work together to address the ASF crisis, their actions do not match their words, as they seem to be manipulating the narrative to blame the DPP-led government and even hinder its efforts.
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