The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) yesterday reported the nation’s latest confirmed case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) involving a hog pen at a meat market in Hsinchu County.
Blisters — a symptom of FMD — were found on eight of the nine hogs in the pen on July 13. The animals were immediately culled.
SEROTYPE O
BAPHIQ officials said tests on specimens taken from the hogs confirmed they had been infected with serotype O of the FMD virus. As the hogs had been enclosed overnight in the meat market, it was likely they were infected at the facility, the officials said.
The market was disinfected soon after the discovery of FMD, and further disinfection efforts will be carried out in the coming days while the market is not open for business, they said, adding that quarantine officials had already inspected the farm where the hogs were raised and had found no abnormalities.
BAPHIQ, however, has restricted the movement of livestock within the farm and has collected specimens for further tests, the officials said.
SPORADIC
Sporadic FMD cases have been reported on pig farms in several parts of the country since the beginning of this year.
The cases have come just as Taiwan, which experienced a serious FMD outbreak in 1997, has been working toward being listed as a fully FMD-free country after it was recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health as an “FMD-free country with vaccination” thanks to its efforts to eliminate the disease over the past decade.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we