African swine fever was confirmed at a pig farm in Taichung, the Ministry of Agriculture said today, prompting a five-day nationwide ban on transporting and slaughtering pigs, and marking the loss of Taiwan’s status as the only Asian nation free of all three major swine diseases.
The ministry held a news conference today confirming that the virus was detected at a farm in Wuci District (梧棲) yesterday evening.
Authorities preemptively culled 195 pigs at the farm at about 3am and disinfected the entire site to prevent the disease from spreading, the ministry said.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
Authorities also set up a 3km-radius control zone restricting movement around the affected area, it said.
The ministry is monitoring the health of all pigs in the area and investigating the source of the infection, it added.
It has also investigated the transport routes and all 33 farms associated with the suspected farm and found no abnormalities, it said.
Minister of Agriculture Minister Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) announced that an emergency response center would be set up on-site in Taichung today.
Starting from noon, transporting and slaughtering pigs has been suspended nationwide for at least five days, pending changes, and feeding pigs with kitchen waste has also been banned, Chen said.
The nation would also stop exporting pork products temporarily, he said.
All meat markets and transport vehicles would be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, he said.
Pigs that were transported before the suspension would still be allowed to enter meat markets and slaughterhouses, but cannot leave, he added.
African swine fever cannot be transmitted from animals to humans, as the virus does not replicate in the human body, so there is no risk of the infection spreading to humans.
The Central Emergency Operations Center for African Swine Fever said the virus takes a long time to completely disappear.
Not only is it highly contagious, but it can survive for about 100 days in refrigerated pork, up to 1,000 days in frozen pork and one month inside pigpens, the center said.
Taiwan became the first country in Asia to be officially free of classical swine fever (CSF), African swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease in May when the World Organization for Animal Health certified its CSF-free status.
The recognition marked Taiwan’s achievement as the only Asian nation to be free of the three major swine diseases.
African swine fever has stricken many countries globally and swept across Asia since 2018, but Taiwan had effectively blocked the virus at its borders and was declared free of African swine fever in October last year.
Additional reporting by Esme Yeh
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS