The Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) yesterday said it suspected that the Council of Agriculture had concealed cases of avian influenza for more than two years and had lied to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in its reports.
The group said former premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and former Council of Agriculture minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) should be held responsible for the cover up.
EAST disclosed two documents from 2010, dated March 1 and March 8, that the council’s Animal Health Research Institute sent to the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine. The documents showed that two technical group meetings held on Feb. 25 and March 5 that year had already received H5N2 Intravenous Pathogenicity Index [IVPI] lab results, which showed readings above 1.2 and 2.41, indicators that the strains were highly pathogenic.
Readings greater than 1.2 in an IVPI test on a six-week-old chicken indicate a highly pathogenic strain.
However, the council’s four reports to the OIE that year all said that the cases were “of a low pathogenic level,” EAST executive director Wu Hung (朱增宏) said, adding that the council should explain why it added “clinical high death rate” as a criteria for determining a virus strain’s severity.
The association received a report from an undisclosed source in early 2010 that said an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza had occurred and that the council was trying to cover up the fact, Wu Hung said, adding that to confirm the report, the association had asked the bureau to provide any related documents, but the bureau refused, saying they were “official confidential information.”
Wu Hung said the association had filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court against the bureau for violating the Freedom of Government Information Act (政府資訊公開法), but it was rejected. It is now in the process of being appealed at the Taipei High Administrative Court.
Chen Yen-chun (陳彥君), a lawyer from Primordial Law Firm, which was commissioned by the association to pursue the case, said the bureau must provide other legal sources to explain why the documents were classified “confidential, official use only.”
Furthermore, the bureau’s response — “check foreign official Web sites on the Internet by yourself” — was not an adequate government attitude, because it is the government’s duty to answer public inquiries, Chen Yen-chun said.
EAST director Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏) said when facing outbreaks of bird flu in Southeast Asia in March 2006, the National Security Council had formulated a policy prohibiting all slaughter of poultry in traditional markets and funds were made available for several government agencies to enforce the policy.
“However, right before the official enactment day on April 1, 2010, the council released a proclamation saying that because the conditions of avian influenza had stabilized and in consideration of the public’s eating habits, selling and slaughtering live poultry in traditional markets would be allowed,” Chen Yu-min said.
The outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza was occurring in Taiwan at that time, so how could the council make such a risky decision, Chen Yu-min asked.
The group said the council had concealed the truth from the OIE, the media and the public for two years, not just for 70 days since the outbreak in Changhua County in December last year.
They urged the Control Yuan to find out who should be held responsible for the decision to cover-up the outbreak.
At a separate setting, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also blamed Chen Wu-hsiung for the controversy.
Under Chen Wu-hsiung’s leadership, the council betrayed its professionalism and filed a false report on the outbreak, DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said.
The council’s report was first submitted to the OIE on Jan. 10, four days before the presidential election, the OIE Web site shows.
In a follow-up report on Saturday, the council still listed the outbreak as having a low pathogenic level.
The government’s handling of the case is a major mistake, Lin said, adding that the latest outbreak of H5N2 influenza could be blamed on the inaction and incompetence of the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Facing a similar crisis when it was in office, the DPP -administration adopted a standard operating procedure in handling avian influenza outbreaks — culling poultry, sterilizing poultry farms, taking control of contaminated farms and making public announcements on the spread of the disease, Lin said.
“There was no severe outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza during the DPP administration, and it was not because we were lucky, but because we always took the matter seriously,” he said.
At a press conference yesterday, Chen Wu-hsiung denied any wrongdoing during his term and said: “I have nothing to apologize for.”
The former minister, who stepped down last month said the report by Kevin H. J. Lee (李惠仁), a freelance journalist who spent more than six years investigating avian influenza in Taiwan and first reported on its spread in his documentary titled A Secret That Can’t Be Exposed (不能戳的秘密), only presented “partial facts” on the matter.
He said he would be willing to discuss the matter with Lee or anyone in an open debate.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS