The African swine fever case identified at a hog farm in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲) last month was likely caused by improperly sanitized kitchen waste used as pig feed, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Tu Wen-jane (杜文珍) said today.
The virus was successfully contained with no additional infected pigs or positive environmental samples detected, the Central Emergency Operations Center for African Swine Fever in Taichung said in a report released today.
The possibility of the virus being introduced through humans, vehicles or imported pigs has also been ruled out, said Tu, who is leading the Taichung response unit.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The singular case likely originated from kitchen waste that was not properly boiled or steamed as per regulations, she said.
The investigation found that the hog farm not only used kitchen waste collected by the Wuci sanitation department, but also from nearby residents who left waste outside the farm for collection and from the farmer’s own kitchen, she said.
Local sanitation workers also provided kitchen waste to another farm for use as pig feed, but that farm properly documented that all food waste was boiled before use and tested negative for African swine fever, Tu added.
The infected hog farm had purchased two 20-liter gas cylinders in April and three cylinders last year to use as fuel for sanitizing food waste, she said.
However, two of those cylinders remained at the farm when military personnel entered the property following the outbreak, and there was no sign of firewood being burned, she said.
This suggests that the farm was not properly boiling and sanitizing the waste, the investigation found.
In addition, the pedals of the farm’s kitchen waste cart also tested positive for the virus, Tu added.
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