A farm in Chiayi yesterday became the nation’s latest poultry farm to test positive for the highly pathogenic H5N6 avian influenza virus strain.
Comprehensive test results should be available today, the Chiayi County Department of Agriculture said, adding that county inspectors found contaminated chickens at an unlicensed butcher’s shop in a traditional market.
The news came after a turkey farm in Tainan was on Sunday confirmed to have H5N6-infected birds, following the first confirmed H5N6 infection in the nation last week at a poultry farm in Hualien County and a case in Yilan County on Saturday.
Photo: CNA
Later yesterday, another poultry farm in Hualien was also declared infected.
A case of H5N2 contamination was confirmed at a chicken farm in the county’s Taisi Township (台西), Yulin County Animal and Plant Disease Control Center Director Liao Pei-chih (廖培志) said separately yesterday.
The confirmation resulted in the culling of 3,900 chickens, bringing the total number of birds culled in the county to more than 130,000 so far this year, he said, adding that the authorities then disinfected nearby areas to prevent the spread of the virus.
Photo: CNA
The Cabinet on Sunday established a Central Epidemic Response Center.
The center held its first meeting yesterday, during which Premier Lin Chuan (林全) called on local governments to work with the central government to make preparations and adopt measures to contain the disease.
He added that if the outbreak continues, the Cabinet would take further measures, such as imposing border or movement controls.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) yesterday urged people to avoid visiting live poultry markets or poultry farms and not to eat raw eggs to avoid H5N6 infections.
However, Chuang said humans can only become infected with the virus if a person is exposed to an environment where the virus is active, so only poultry farmers and personnel culling the infected animals are now at risk.
The centers have been working closely with the Council of Agriculture and local health bureaus since Feb. 5 to ensure that personnel who are responsible for culling and disposal of carcasses wear protective clothing and N95 surgical masks, he said.
Photo: CNA
All personnel connected with the recent cases have been monitored by the centers for possible infection, Chuang said, adding that aside from checking on such personnel every day, the centers have also instructed medical facilities to ask patients with flu-like symptoms whether they had been near poultry carcasses.
The centers have prepared 1.97 million N95 surgical masks, 510,000 sets of protective clothing and about 45 million other types of surgical masks to serve as disease prevention equipment, Chuang said.
The Taipei Department of Environmental Protection yesterday warned the public not to feed wild birds, adding that the maximum fine for feeding wild birds is NT$6,000.
The department would be monitoring areas in the city such as the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall complex and Daan Forest Park, which usually attract flocks of wild birds, department official Yang Wei-hsiu (楊維修) said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday called a news conference, demanding that the central government make the “maximum effort” to prevent a national outbreak.
The situation is “a matter of national security,” KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said, urging the government to remain on guard, as farmers might conceal incidents of contamination at their facilities.
KMT Legislator Arthur Chen (陳宜民) called on Taiwanese travelers and businesspeople to remain vigilant, as cases of H5N6 infection in humans have been reported in China.
Additional reporting by Huang Shu-li and CNA
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat