The first stage of disease tracing showed that the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak has been contained at its initial site in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲), Deputy Minister of Agriculture Tu Wen-jane (杜文珍) said yesterday.
Tu told a news conference in Taichung held by the ASF Forward Command Center that the public can be “assured, but not relaxed.”
Meanwhile, Taichung Agriculture Bureau Director Chang Ching-chang (張敬昌) gave a timeline of the outbreak.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The city’s Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office received a report on Oct. 13 evening from a veterinary aide surnamed Wang (王), who worked with the affected farm, and officials were dispatched to the site the following day, he said.
The office’s veterinarian diagnosed the pigs with an actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae infection, but did not collect samples after hearing that the hog farmer, surnamed Chen (陳), had given medication to the animals that had nasal bleeding, Chang said.
The same veterinarian returned to the site on Monday last week to take samples, he said, adding that the pigs did not show typical symptoms of ASF, so sampling was not considered necessary.
Chen had not committed a regulatory violation by administering medication to his pigs after abnormal deaths without reporting the matter to the office veterinarian, Chang said.
Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) has also said that sampling would be required for pigs with bleeding symptoms.
A city government investigation found that Chen had called Wang for advice regarding his pigs, who provided instructions and medication.
However, Wang was only a veterinarian aide and was not authorized to prescribe medication, prompting authorities to take him in for questioning.
Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said that the farm had also failed to upload required videos or photographs showing kitchen waste being cooked properly before being fed to pigs.
The farm uploaded such data 24 times in May, eight times in June and once in July, but did not upload anything in August, Peng said.
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) yesterday said that there are currently no penalties for such contraventions, and urged lawmakers to amend the law accordingly.
Environmental protection agencies are required to inspect pig farms once every two to three months to ensure the safety of feeding procedures, Environmental Management Administration Deputy Director-General Lin Tso-hsiang (林左祥) said.
If a farm fails to upload records, inspections should be increased to once every month, he said.
However, the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau only inspected the site in May and July, and did not visit in June or August, he added.
Bureau head Chen Hung-yi (陳宏益) said that it recorded 15 contraventions from the 37 pig farms in the city that use food waste as feed over the past two years.
In the 24 times the outbreak site was inspected over the past three years, there were no problems or any records of fines, he said, adding that the bureau had called the farm every month since June to demand the records.
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