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.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS