Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has spread to a dairy farm in Kaohsiung County, despite government reassurances two weeks ago the most recent outbreak had been contained.
Almost 300 goats were killed yesterday afternoon in Alian town-ship after the Council of Agriculture confirmed that a farm there had been infected with the deadly livestock disease.
Forty-two kids died on the farm between Feb. 18 and Feb. 23. Director of the council's animal quarantine department Li Chin-lung (
The department's deputy director Sung Hua-tsung
The area around the farm has been quarantined and the 295 goats on the farm were all killed, according to a report from the Central News Agency.
Tests on the goats that died over the past few days confirmed they were infected with the O-Kinmen strain of the virus -- the same strain that struck goats in Taiwan for the first time earlier this month.
Veterinarian Lai Hsiu-sui
After FMD broke out in goats for the first time in Changhua County's Fangyuan township on Feb. 4, the council ordered mandatory immunizations for all cloven-hooved livestock -- pigs, cows, goats and deer -- which are vulnerable to the disease.
The virus does not affect humans, but people can carry the virus on their bodies for up to seven days.
The council also announced on Feb. 18 that it would cooperate with the coast guard in clamping down on smuggling across the Taiwan Strait.
The source of the virus is believed to be livestock entering illegally from China, although agriculture experts on the mainland said this was unlikely.
Zhou Heping
He acknowledged, however, that he did not know what smuggling control measures were in place in Fujian province's ports.
Four million of Taiwan's estimated seven million pigs were slaughtered in March 1997 after an outbreak of FMD.
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