Foot-and-mouth disease has been found on a Kinmen County cattle farm, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday, adding that all infected cattle have been euthanized. The council said the virus might have originated in China, as the strain detected is a 99 percent match to that found in China’s Guangdong Province in 2013. Council officials said it is the first time that strain has been found in Taiwan.
Council Deputy Minister Wang Cheng-teng (王政騰) said routine examinations conducted on April 17 turned up positive test results for foot-and-mouth disease and the council took immediate steps to contain the disease on the farm.
On April 23 two more cows on the farm tested positive for the disease and council staff took blood and pharyngeal fluid specimens from 15 others to test. The results released on Friday last week showed one of the 15 tested positive for the disease and the cow was euthanized on Saturday, Wang said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Foot-and-mouth disease can be a severe blow to farmers, Wang said, citing a 1997 outbreak of type O foot-and-mouth among swine in the nation that led to the slaughter of 3 million pigs.
The type A foot-and-mouth disease found in Kinmen is different from the type O Southeast Asia strain and the type O pan-Asia strain, Animal Health Research Institute director Tsai Hsiang-jung (蔡向榮) said.
As the virus can be spread through the air, disease prevention measures include testing all livestock farms within a radius of 1km of an infected site and on-site inspections for farms within a 1km to 3km radius, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Director-General Chang Su-san (張淑賢) said.
Humans can also become virus carriers and pass the disease on to hoofed animals, academics said.
The bureau called in experts on Thursday to discuss whether it was necessary to enlarge containment parameters, Chang said, adding that the bureau had forwarded the information to the World Organization for Animal Health.
The remaining 175 cows on the farm where the disease was originally found were put down after Thursday’s meeting, Chang said.
Wang said authorities will step up quarantine inspection at ports of entry as part of the efforts to prevent the spread of the disease.
He said the virus may have been transported to Kinmen via the “small three links” from China’s Fujian Province.
The council has banned fresh-meat imports from Kinmen County to Taiwan proper as well as processed foodstuffs that are subject to high-temperature treatment, such as beef jerky.
Kinmen beef jerky is one of the island’s most popular food products.
Wang said Kinmen has more than 15,000 livestock.
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