Premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called on Beijing to publicize information about the African swine fever epidemic in China and work with neighboring nations to curb the spread of the disease, after an infected pig’s carcass was found in Kinmen County.
Lai made the remarks at the second meeting of the Executive Yuan’s Central Emergency Operation Center to oversee quarantine measures against the disease.
The Council of Agriculture (COA) on Thursday confirmed that a dead pig found on a beach in Kinmen County’s Jinsha Township (金沙) on Tuesday had tested positive for the disease.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The carcass might have floated from China’s Fujian Province’s Zhangzhou or Xiamen via the Jiulong River to Kinmen, COA Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Director-General Feng Hai-tung (馮海東) said.
China has not reported any infection in the two cities to the World Organisation for Animal Health, Feng said.
It was likely an isolated case, the council said, adding that pigs at a farm within a 3km radius of the site have not shown any symptoms of being infected.
The discovery of the dead pig in Kinmen proves that China’s disease control and infection reporting are problematic, and more infected pigs might float to Matsu or other nations, Lai said.
China should honestly publicize its infection situation and work with other nations to curb the disease’s spread, a responsibility that it should shoulder, instead of worrying about “losing face,” he said.
Coast Guard Administration Director-General Lee Chung-wei (李仲威) reported at the meeting that another pig carcass had been found on a beach in Kinmen’s Siaociou Islet (小坵島) and that authorities have closed off the area.
With northeasterly monsoons bringing more marine garbage or animal carcasses from China to Kinmen via sea currents, the coast guard is increasing its patrols near the county, Lee said.
The Animal Health Research Institute has not yet received samples taken from the second dead pig, but it would finish testing within 24 hours upon receiving the samples, institute acting section chief Deng Ming-chung (鄧明中) said.
Council of Agriculture Acting Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) announced that starting yesterday, pork products from Kinmen are banned from entering Taiwan proper for two weeks, to ensure the safety of pigs and pork products on the main island.
“Kimmen is not yet infected, but based on the highest degree of quarantine, the strictest standards are to be enforced,” Chen said.
Additional measures have been put in place at Kinmen airport to remind travelers of the ban, which is to last until Jan. 16, including stricter immigration clearance checks with X-ray machines and sniffer dogs, bureau official Fu Hsueh-li (傅學理) said.
While only nine of the nation’s 22 municipalities had set up emergency centers to guard against the disease before the meeting, the rest have all followed suit after receiving Lai’s orders to establish such centers, the council said.
Meanwhile, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday signed into law an amendment to Article 34 of the Act for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease (動物傳染病防治條例), which states that international parcels containing quarantined items such as meat products from certain areas are to be returned, confiscated or destroyed.
Separately, the Ministry of Education said it would enhance prevention measures and awareness among companies that provide lunch programs on campus after a student at Nantou County’s Puli Elementary School found a sausage with a simplified Chinese label on a classroom floor.
The student immediately informed his teacher and the school sealed it in a bag and sent it to the quarantine bureau’s branch office in Taichung.
The student said that his mother had told him not to eat food from unknown sources and that he had also learned about the disease from TV news.
The classroom is used for teaching Aboriginal languages and used by students from different grades, the school said.
It is not clear who left the sausage, it said.
Additional reporting by Tung Chen-kuo
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS