The Kinmen County Government yesterday suspended the transportation of pork between Lieyu Township (烈嶼) and other areas of the outlying county after a dead pig found in the township tested positive for African swine fever.
It was the third infected pig carcass found in the nation’s outlying islands, following dead hogs found in Kinmen’s Jinsha Township (金沙) in December last year and in Lienchiang County’s Jyuguang Township (莒光) in January, Council of Agriculture data showed.
The carcasses might have been carried from China by sea currents, the council said, adding that no infections of the highly contagious disease have been reported on Taiwan proper.
Photo: CNA
The council on Thursday confirmed that the third carcass, which was found on Lieyu’s southwest coast on Tuesday, was infected with the same strain of the virus that is spreading in China.
There is no hog farm within a 3km radius of the site where the carcass was found, the council said, adding that it is possible that it arrived from China, as the site is only 6km from Xiamen.
The dead pig was found among marine garbage, but there were no other carcasses, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine division head Hsu Jung-pin (徐榮彬) said.
The county government suspended the transportation of pork between Lieyu, also known as Little Kinmen, and Greater Kinmen (大金門), where there is an airport with flights to Taiwan proper, he said.
The transportation of pork between Greater Kinmen and Taiwan proper would not be affected, he added.
Officials yesterday collected 137 samples from Leiyu’s eight pig farms, which keep a total of 770 pigs, Kinmen Animal and Plant Disease Control Center Director Chuang Chien-kung (莊謙恭) said, adding that the samples would be sent to the council’s Animal Health Research Institute for testing.
The ban on transportation of pork from the township would be lifted immediately if the samples test negative for the disease, Chuang added.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
RSS