An officials' cover-up of an imported swan secretly removed from a quarantine station last month highlights the nation's potential vulnerability to the spread of disease.
However, officials with the Council of Agriculture said yesterday that the first-ever theft of an animal under quarantine would not lead to the spread of a serious disease because results of previous examinations showed the existence of antibodies -- and not viruses -- in the quarantined swans.
According to the council's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, on Jan. 28, a Taiwanese trading company imported 30 swans from Hungary. They were kept in a quarantine station in Hsinchu for the required 21-day inspection and quarantine.
Reports filed from the station said that five swans died from the from the disease known as aspergillus fumigatus while in quarantine.
Bureau Deputy Director-General Yeh Ying (葉瑩) said yesterday that an in-depth investigation showed that there were four swan deaths out of the 26 in quarantine, and the missing swan was stolen by an employee of the trading company in February.
Yeh said that officials at the station involved in the cover-up of the theft have since be given other duties.
"We've tracked down the swan stolen from the company," Yeh said. "But we need more solid evidence proving that it was the same [swan]. A theft of this nature can carry up to three years' imprisonment and a fine less than NT$150,000."
As they failed to meet Taiwanese health requirement, the remaining 25 swans were destroyed on March 14,Yeh said. They carried antibodies against New Castle Diseases, a virus far less dangerous than bird flu.
"We found no virus of deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the swans," Yeh stressed.
Yeh said that the cover-up has prompted a review of management and the standard operating procedure at all quarantine stations in order to prevent a similar incident.
Although deadly bird flu outbreak has plagued some Asian countries, Yeh said that Taiwan remains unaffected by the disease. However, the inspection and quarantine must remain strict at all customs checkpoints.
Citing the outbreak bird flu in Thailand and Vietnam last year, the bureau has reminded travelers of the risk of spreading the virus by smuggling birds or bird-related products out of those countries.
Bureau officials said yesterday that the nation's poultry farmers remain on high alert because a number of farms in central and southern Taiwan that have witnessed an outbreak of the less harmful H5N2 strain of bird flu early last year.
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