Sausages in an intercepted package from Thailand were confirmed to have the African swine fever virus, the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) said on Thursday.
The Council of Agriculture’s (COA) Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, which oversees the center, said that a package was flagged by a post office in Tainan on Wednesday last week after it was found to contain sausages.
A laboratory test on Friday last week revealed that the meat carried the African swine fever virus.
Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine via CNA
The sausages tested positive again in a confirmation test at a bureau laboratory on Wednesday.
It is the first time that African swine fever has been detected in pork products from Thailand, the CEOC said.
Although pork products found in the luggage of a Thai traveler three months ago had been determined to have the virus, it was unclear if the food originated from Thailand, as there was no labeling, and because the person had entered from China, the COA said.
The bureau said that Thailand has yet to report any African swine fever cases to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
The intercepted package would be returned to Thailand, with the case reported to the nation’s OIE representative, the center said.
As some of Thailand’s neighbors border China, the CEOC anticipated in a 2019 risk assessment that the virus would eventually make its way to the country through Southeast Asia, it said.
Luggage, express mail and packages arriving from Southeast Asian countries have been subjected to detailed inspections, including with X-rays, upon entry into Taiwan, the bureau said.
Taiwanese should refrain from receiving pork products from other countries, especially considering their popularity during the Lunar New Year period, as packages containing these products must be handed to a bureau-sanctioned agency to be destroyed, the CEOC said.
Under the Act for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease (動物傳染病防治條例), those who do not comply with regulations could be fined from NT$30,000 to NT$150,000, the CEOC said.
The African swine fever pandemic remains a serious concern in Asia, with the virus having been found in Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, the Philippines, South Korea, Timor-Leste, South Korea and Vietnam, it added.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai