The Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) on Tuesday officially declared Taiwan proper, Penghu and Matsu a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)-free zone where vaccination is not practiced, the Council of Agriculture and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced on Facebook late on Tuesday night.
Kinmen was not included by the OIE as the county remains a FMD-free zone where vaccination is practiced.
The news, which had been expected, would facilitate the resumption of fresh pork exports after a 24-year hiatus.
Photo courtesy of Chiayi County Government
“Beginning now, Taiwan can finally resume pork exports and Taiwan’s pork can finally regain its place on the world stage,” Tsai wrote.
The council would not relax its guard as it works to prevent the spread of FMD and African swine fever in the nation, council Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) wrote.
Chen added that the government hopes exports of fresh pork products could resume later this year.
He had previously said that Singapore was expected to be the first market.
The council said the nation’s pig farming industry had export sales of NT$60 billion (US$2.02 billion at the current exchange rate) in 1996, but was hit hard by an FMD outbreak in March 1997, which triggered the ban on exports of fresh pork products.
Prior to that outbreak, the nation had been free of the disease for more than 68 years
A few months after the outbreak, Taiwan began widespread FMD vaccinations and in 2003, it gained the status of an FMD-free nation where vaccination is practiced.
The government tried to end the vaccination program in 2009 in a bid to qualify for non-vaccination status, but the effort failed after seven FMD cases were reported that year.
Taiwan proper, Penghu and Matsu saw their last FMD case in 2013 and regained FMD-free status with vaccination in August 2017, while an outbreak in Kinmen occurred in 2015, resulting in the county only regaining its status in May 2018.
The government began a program on July 1, 2018, to eliminate the need for FMD inoculation everywhere but Kinmen, and in July last year it applied to the OIE for FMD-free status.
Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious viral disease that affects cattle, swine, sheep, goats and other cloven-hoofed ruminants.
A total of 5.51 million pigs are being raised nationwide and pig farming last year was valued at NT$70.9 billion, council data showed.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS