A paper submitted by a Taiwanese academic to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s scientific journal in July said that the H6N1 strain of avian influenza is continuing to mutate in Taiwan, with dogs now also susceptible to the virus.
National Taiwan University school of veterinary science professor Wang Ching-ho (王金和) wrote that he learned last year that canines have contracted the H6N1 bird flu strain, adding that after further research he found that roughly 2.1 percent of canines in Taiwan have been infected.
In an interview with Chinese-language newspaper the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times), Wang said he came across the first case several years ago when examining a dog’s temperament. He and fellow researchers discovered that the dog was infected with H6N1 after conducting virus isolation procedures.
Wang said it is possible that certain biological similarities between canines and birds make them susceptible to the virus.
The strain of H6N1 in Taiwan has not only infected dogs, but has also become the first known case world-wide to infect humans, Wang said. Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control discovered in May that a 20-year-old female dog in Nantou County had also become infected with the virus.
When asked why he had not informed the government in May about dogs being suspected carriers of the H6N1 viral strain, Wang said it was not a disease mandated by the World Organization for Animal Health that had to be reported.
However, Wang said that he had mentioned the report several years ago during a seminar at National Taiwan University, adding that he had also sent an e-mail to the Council of Agriculture about the issue.
In response, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine director-general Chang Su-san (張淑賢) said that while the case of a dog being infected by H6N1 was the first in Taiwan, the viral strain has a 40-year history here.
The bureau did not need to be informed of the case, as it was a common and low-pathogenic virus often seen on chicken farms, she said, adding the bureau did not place great emphasis on the report.
Unsatisfied with the response, freelance journalist Lee Hui-jen (李惠仁), who spent more than six years investigating avian influenza in Taiwan and directed the documentary A Secret that Can’t be Exposed (不能戳的秘密) said the bureau’s inaction was indirectly escalating the danger the endemic H6N1 strain posed to the nation.
A mild avian influenza outbreak earlier this year included allegedly highly pathogenic bird flu strains, the H5N8 strain and a new H5N2 strain, Lee said, adding that virus strains are starting to mutate in Taiwan, but that the bureau was not paying any attention to it.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS