Cattle farmers in Kinmen County expressed concern yesterday that a recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease could make their beef unmarketable, while county officials urged the public not to panic.
The Council of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine on Friday reported an outbreak of “type O pan-Asia” foot-and-mouth disease, which affects hoofed animals such as deer, cattle, sheep and pigs.
In response to the outbreak, 530 pigs had been culled as a preventive measure from Monday to Thursday.
Over the years, the county government has encouraged farmers to raise cattle. Currently, Kinmen’s herds total about 5,200 cows, but the county consumes only 300 annually. With a ban currently in place on some livestock from Kinmen, farmers are worried that their beef will become unsellable.
The situation for pig farmers is slightly better, as the 17,000 pigs in the county roughly satisfy market demand, according to officials from the Kinmen County Economic Affairs Bureau, who added that farmers might face problems if the public panics and stops purchasing pork products.
Kinmen County Commissioner Li Wo-shi (李沃士) said residents of Kinmen should not panic because the central and local governments were working to control the disease.
The bureau said the council has already banned the import of raw meat from cloven-hoofed animals from Kinmen County to Taiwan proper until the disease is totally under control.
It has also implemented other preventive measures, such as using sniffer dogs to check the luggage of visitors to Taiwan proper from Kinmen and Matsu islands, and from China’s Xiamen, Mawei and Quanzhou, the bureau said.
The bureau urged owners of livestock and workers in related industries to avoid visiting countries with foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks and to immediately report any symptoms that they suspect could be foot-and-mouth disease in cloven-hoofed animal populations.
The Statue for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease (動物傳染病防治條例) states that people who fail to report the disease may be fined between NT$10,000 to NT$50,000, the bureau said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe