The government is to decide tomorrow whether to lift a nationwide ban on the transportation and slaughtering of pigs initiated to counter an African swine fever outbreak, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said today.
Cho was responding to a question on whether the ban, set for 15 days from noon on Oct. 22, could be lifted on Friday as scheduled.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The ban came one day after pig carcasses at a farm in Wuci District (梧棲) in Taichung tested positive for the disease.
The African Swine Fever Forward Command Center is to make a decision tomorrow at noon, Cho said.
Saying that a probe by a central epidemic investigation team tied the infections to the improper handling of kitchen waste, Cho said the ban on feeding pigs with swill would remain in place until several preconditions put forward by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) are met.
These include a joint inspection by the Ministry of Environment and the MOA, as well as safety checks on the cooking equipment and number of pigs at all 434 pig farms currently engaged in kitchen waste feeding, the MOA said.
Also, cooking equipment must be subject to real-time monitoring, rather than simply allowing farm operators to upload data as was done in the past, and regulations on feeding swill to pigs and kitchen waste management need to be updated.
If the transportation and slaughtering ban is lifted, the Executive Yuan would focus on measures to stabilize the primary production chain, pork prices and the supply of meat, Cho said.
Efforts to meet these goals would be reviewed weekly to ensure that the situation fully returns to normal within the next month, he said.
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