Chinese breeders may be feeding hairy crabs, also known as dazha crabs, with poisoned mice, two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday, calling on health officials to implement stricter inspections of crab imports.
DPP Legislator Wu Ming-ming (吳明敏) said recent reports published by different media organizations claimed that about 2 billion mice around Dongting Lake in China had been poisoned with tetramine, a type of rat poison that has been involved in major food poisoning cases in China in recent years.
As Chinese breeders have previously been accused of feeding the carcasses of dead pigs or dogs to their hairy crabs, it's likely that the poisoned mice might have been used as feed, Wu said.
Another concern over the safety of hairy crabs is that their habitat is seriously affected by cyanotoxin pollution, which could lead to liver damage in humans, Wu said.
Wu said that Chinese hairy crabs come mainly from Dongting Lake in Hunan Province and Lake Tai in Jiangsu Province, which have both reported cases of contamination by cyanotoxin.
Chang Yeh-shen (張葉森), a doctor who also attended the press conference, said that Chinese breeders have used both hormones and steroids to accelerate the growth of their crabs.
It generally takes two years for a juvenile crab to grow big enough for market, but Chinese feeders can reduce this to one year with chemicals, Chang said.
"What worries us most are the poor food safety inspections conducted by China," Wu said.
It is very difficult to examine all the toxins contained in cyanotoxin and China's less than strict inspections of hairy crabs complicates the food safety problem, Wu said.
In 2004 and 2005, about 1,000 tonnes of hairy crabs were imported from China, DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (
Last October, during the peak of the hairy crab season, metabolites of the banned antibiotic substance nitrofuran were found in batches of hairy crabs from China.
Tien urged the government to undertake stricter testing on imported hairy crabs and called on the public to consume red crabs grown in Taiwan instead of hairy crabs.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS