Bird farmers are on alert for migratory birds arriving from the north because of fears they might trigger an outbreak of bird flu in local populations.
Council of Agriculture officials yesterday urged farmers to closely monitor their flocks, while a ban on bird imports and related products from Japan, where avian influenza is spreading, was announced on Monday.
A similar ban was imposed on South Korea last month to prevent transmission of the bird flu virus.
A taskforce will be established within days to address the deteriorating situation faced by other Asian countries. Officials said that if the disease breaks out on local farms, all birds within 6km will be prohibited from leaving the area, while those within 3km will be slaughtered.
Agricultural inspectors have not detected any virulent bird-flu strains since 1998, when real-time monitoring measures for bird farms came into force, said Animal Inspection Department director Chen Yu-hsin (
Two weak strains -- H7N7 and H5N2 -- were found last year in farms in Ilan and Tainan counties, however, and the affected birds were slaughtered, Chen said.
After the slaughter, monitoring continued for six months in Ilan without any problems surfacing. The affected farms in Tainan were still being monitored, he said.
Chiang Yi-nan (江益男), director of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, said yesterday that killing birds infected with weak strains was necessary.
He said an outbreak of bird flu was usually caused when water birds passed the virus on to land birds.
"An outbreak can occur within six months of the initial infection of land birds," Chiang said.
Officials urged bird farmers to set up nets around their flocks and pay more attention to bird feed facilities, which could be contaminated by wild birds encroaching on breeding sites.
The COA also urged chicken farmers to take steps so that migratory birds and wild fowl could not enter henhouses or warehouses in search of food.
These measures included disinfecting the interior and immediate exterior of henhouses.
Officials said the nation was vulnerable to bird flu because of close trade links with affected countries in the region, including Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan.
People heading to places affected by bird flu were also urged not to visit chicken farms. If this were unavoidable, travelers were urged to wait at least one week after returning home before entering a farm.
According to the council's Animal Health Research Institute, outbreaks in South Korea and in Japan have not led to infection of humans.
"The public doesn't have to worry about links between health problems and bird flu outbreaks in other countries," said institute director Lin Shih-yu (
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
RSS