The spread of goat pox virus (GPV) on farms in Taiwan has yet to subside, with about 14,000 infected goats culled since the first case this year was confirmed on April 9, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.
A total of 13,976 pox-infected goats from 127 goat farms in 11 cities and counties — Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung cities and Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan and KaohsiungA counties — had been slaughtered as of Saturday to prevent the spread of the virus, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine director Hsu Tien-lai (許天來) said. Hsu said the bureau had purchased 230,000 doses of vaccine and is ready to vaccinate all 220,000 goats in the country.
Hsu did not think the GPV outbreak would drive up goat meat prices, saying that domestically raised goats contribute only about 12 percent of the country’s demand, with about 90 percent of the demand being met by imports from New Zealand and Australia.
In Kaohsiung County, 2,300 GPV-infected goats from 12 goat farms have been culled, the Kaohsiung County Animal Disease Control Center said.
The culled number constituted about 10 percent of all goats raised in Kaohsiung County. The goats were raised either for meat or milk, the center said.
Officials from the center said that GPV — a highly contagious disease of small ruminants that is characterized by a fever and ocular and nasal discharges — is spread via contact among the animals. The virus cannot infect humans and can be destroyed at high temperatures, they said.
Since many farmers in Kaohsiung County are not regular goat raisers, but still have a few goats on their property, the center urged these people to report to their local county offices and apply to have their goats vaccinated.
The COA said it was still investigating the source of the infection.
This is the second time the disease has been reported in Taiwan. The first outbreak occurred in July 2008 in Taoyuan County and is believed to have been started when an animal was smuggled into Taiwan from a GPV-affected area, such as Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Africa or the Middle East, but the exact source remained unclear, the COA said.
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