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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS