The H5N1 avian influenza virus has been found in five more poultry farms, extending an outbreak that marks the first time the strain has made the leap from waterfowl to farmed landfowl in Taiwan, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.
The infection clusters were found in one duck and three free-range chicken farms in Erlin Township (二林), and one goose farm in Pusin Township (埔心), all in Changhua County, COA Deputy Minister Huang Chin-cheng (黃金城) said.
The rise in cases shows that avian flu is spreading in Taiwan, although outbreaks have been contained, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Changhua County Animal Disease Control Center via CNA
Authorities have ruled out the possibility that the latest H5N1 cases were transmitted from a previous cluster in Yilan County, and wild waterfowl remains the most likely vector, Huang said.
The vector for the outbreak in chicken farms was either virus-bearing wild birds that entered the farms through gaps in coop netting or poultry workers who were exposed to the pathogen, he said.
The chicken-raising Erlin and Jhutang (竹塘) townships in Changhua County were flagged as hot zones for increased monitoring and sterilization, he added.
The H5N1 pandemic has impacted the farming of chicken and eggs in the US, Europe and Japan. Last month, Taiwan reported the year’s first cluster of the disease at a duck farm in Yilan County.
The latest outbreak brings the total number of farms affected in Taiwan to 39 — 25 chicken farms, 10 duck farms and four goose farms.
The outbreaks are not expected to impact the supply of chicken meat during the Lunar New Year, as the virus has not spread to broilers and reserves in cold storage are enough to meet demand, Huang said.
Changhua and Yunlin counties have high concentrations of poultry farms, and the emergence of clusters there is concerning, but other affected regions are safe as there have been no reported cases in the two weeks since the initial outbreak, he said.
Farm operators should streamline work processes to reduce the frequency of round-ups, secure their facilities and ensure compliance with sanitation guidelines, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS