The Taichung District Court yesterday approved a request by prosecutors to detain a father and son who operated a pig farm where an outbreak of African swine fever is believed to have originated.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement that after questioning the farmers a second time, it believed they forged documents, and if not detained and held incommunicado posed a high risk of destroying or further forging evidence, as well as colluding with accomplices or witnesses.
The farmers, surnamed Chen (陳), are suspected of altering the numbers on a triplicate form used for the handover of dead pigs to off-site rendering operations, which make the carcasses safe for processing into pork products.
Photo: CNA
Numbers on the form the farmers kept were different from the documents given to the rendering operator, prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday last week.
The discrepancy makes it difficult to determine whether all of the dead pigs from the farm were handled by the rendering operator or if some were illegally sold or disposed of separately, they said.
Prosecutors said they would continue to collaborate closely with disease control units and police in investigating the incident.
The outbreak, which was announced publicly on Oct. 22, was confirmed to have originated from the farm in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲) on Oct. 25. It led to a 15-day ban on the slaughter and transport of pigs.
The African Swine Fever Forward Command Center on Monday said the breakout was likely caused by feeding pigs food waste that had not been properly sterilized.
The outbreak appears to be contained, it added.
The center is by noon today to determine whether the transport and slaughter ban would be lifted as scheduled on Friday, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday.
A ban on feeding pigs kitchen waste would remain in place until conditions proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture are met, Cho added.
The conditions include joint inspections by the ministry and the Ministry of Environment, as well as safety checks on cooking equipment and pigs at all 434 hog farms engaged in kitchen waste feeding, the agriculture ministry said.
Cooking equipment must be subject to real-time monitoring, rather than simply allowing operators to upload data periodically, as was done in the past, while regulations on kitchen waste management would be updated, it said.
If the transportation and slaughtering ban is lifted, the Executive Yuan would institute measures to stabilize the primary production chain, pork prices and the supply of meat, Cho said.
Efforts would be reviewed weekly to ensure conditions return to normal within the next month, he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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