The Council of Agriculture (COA) is planning to end vaccinations against classical swine fever (CSF) in January next year, as it is trying to boost exports of fresh pork.
Despite being declared free of foot-and-mouth disease in 2020, Taiwan has been unable to export fresh pork products to many international markets, including Japan, which only allows imports from countries officially declared as CSF-free.
As a step toward gaining this status, the council is conducting tests at 450 farms that do not give the vaccine to newborn pigs, COA Deputy Minister Huang Chin-cheng (黃金城) said yesterday.
Photo: CNA
If the testing program is successful, farms nationwide would stop vaccinating newborn pigs from January, Huang said, adding that as pigs are usually slaughtered at six months of age, no fresh meat from pigs vaccinated against CSF would be on the market in Taiwan from July next year.
However, Huang did not reveal when Taiwan would seek to be recognized as CSF-free by the World Organization for Animal Health — a status that no other country in Asia has.
Even without official recognition, halting CSF vaccinations would demonstrate the good conditions on Taiwanese hog farms and help local pork products return to the international market, COA official Chiang Wen-chuan (江文全) said.
The council hopes to expand pork sales to wealthier countries, as well as increase exports of specific pork parts to markets where they are consumed, Chiang said.
The move would also help lower the cost of raising pigs in Taiwan, as the vaccine costs more than NT$10 per dose and must be administered once to pigs raised for meat production and twice per year to sows used for breeding, Chiang said.
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