Taiwan yesterday banned the importation of wild dogs and cats and several other types of animal from Thailand after a number of tigers in a Thai zoo ate chickens infected with bird flu and died, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.
Beginning yesterday, the council's Bureau of Animal and Plant Inspection and Quarantine stopped issuing health certificates to importers of animals such as tigers, lions, foxes and wolves.
Bureau officials said yesterday that urgent information released by the World Organization for Animal Health on Tuesday confirmed that 55 of 441 tigers at zoos that ate chickens infected with the virus had fallen ill. So far, 23 have died.
"All signs show that the deadly bird flu is still spreading in Thailand. We have to be cautious," bureau official Tu Wen-jane (
situation critical
Tu said that the situation in other countries remains critical because the virus has been detected in not only chickens but also pigs, birds and a few types of cat that eat raw chicken -- including pets and zoo tigers.
"But people here need not panic because Taiwan has not imported wild animals from Thailand for years," Tu said.
Pet dogs and cats are still allowed to be imported from Thailand. However, animal quarantine regulations have become more strict since Oct. 4. Officials said that pet cats and dogs are not allowed to be exported from Thailand without first undergoing a 21-day quarantine period, during which a test for the bird-flu virus must be negative.
After arriving in Taiwan, these pet cats and pet dogs stay in quarantine for a further 21 days. Checkups continue for six months after they are released.
Bureau officials said that more than 100 million chickens have died or have been culled because of bird flu since the beginning of this year in Asian countries including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.
crisis
Both the UN Food and Agricul-ture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health consider the bird-flu epidemic a "crisis of global importance" that will continue to demand the attention of the international community for many years to come.
So far, available records show that 31 out of 41 people affected by the virus in Thailand and Vietnam have died.
Bureau officials stressed yesterday that Taiwan remains unaffected by the virus and that the public should be aware that smuggling of animals and birds might jeopardize epidemic prevention efforts.
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