A pork vendor in Taipei has been found selling Jinhua ham (金華火腿) possibly smuggled from China, where African swine fever has been spreading, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday, warning that the disease has become a threat to national security.
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Thursday said in two statements that four more cases of the disease have been reported in Anhui and Heilongjiang provinces, raising the number of cases in China to 13 since the first case was reported in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, on Aug. 3.
To prevent the disease from entering Taiwan, the government formed an interagency task force to implement strict quarantine measures, COA Minister Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) said yesterday on the sidelines of the National Agricultural Congress in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
Despite a government ban on imports of Chinese pork products, the task force caught a pork vendor at Taipei’s Nanmen Market (南門市場) selling Jinhua ham — a signature product of the Chinese pork industry, he said.
The vendor claimed that the ham was consigned by others, Lin said, without indicating the amount of ham or the date of its inspection.
The source of the ham has not been confirmed, COA Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Deputy Director-General Shih Tai-hua (施泰華) said separately, adding that an inspection was under way.
The finding is unnerving, because the virus that causes the disease is resistant to acidic and alkaline substances; can survive in frozen pork for 1,000 days and refrigerated pork for 100 days; and has no cure or vaccine, the bureau said.
The bureau last month found 292 instances of travelers who were attempting to import Chinese meat products into Taiwan and 24 samples it has tested were confirmed to be safe, Shih said.
People found importing animal parts carrying the virus could face up to seven years in prison or a fine of up to NT$3 million (US$97,479) for contravening Article 33 of the Statute for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease (動物傳染病防治條例), he said.
While those found importing meat products without following quarantine measures would face a fine of between NT$3,000 and NT$15,000, in line with the statute, people found importing raw meat products from China would be given the maximum fine, the bureau said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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