Taiwan’s effectiveness in preventing African swine fever has been recognized internationally, with the World Organization for Animal Health placing it on its list of places having self-declared freedom from the disease, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday.
The World Organization for Animal Health made the announcement on Thursday after conducting administrative and technical screening of documents submitted in July, the ministry said.
The body assumes no responsibility for the information Taiwan provided, the ministry added.
Photo: Taipei Times
Taiwan and Japan are the only two East Asian countries to have successfully kept African swine fever at bay, the ministry said in a statement.
Taiwan’s inclusion on the list is significant in the promotion of the nation’s sustainable development of its livestock industry, it said.
Taiwan-produced pigs and fresh pork can be exported to the Philippines, and talks are under way with Singapore and Malaysia to permit imports of fresh pork, the ministry said.
After a global outbreak of African swine fever in 2018, Taiwan established a response center dedicated to preventing its spread, the ministry said.
Through stringent border inspections, treatment of food waste and swift disposal of infected pigs, the nation contained the disease on farms and in the wild, it said.
In addition to its African swine fever-free status, Taiwan has been classified by the World Organization for Animal Health as free from foot-and-mouth disease and goat pox, the ministry said, adding that the next goal is to achieve recognition as being free of classical swine fever.
If Taiwan secures that status at the World Organization for Animal Health’s annual assembly in May next year, it will join a select few countries in Asia that are free of the three major infectious swine diseases, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by Yang Yuan-ting
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS