Nine people have been charged in a case involving the supply of fake vaccines to pig farmers, the Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office said on Tuesday.
The people were indicted on Friday last week on charges of fraud, making and selling counterfeit veterinary drugs, and forging or altering documents in violation of the Veterinary Drugs Control Act (動物用藥品管理法) and the Criminal Code, prosecutors said.
An investigation was launched following the sudden deaths of several piglets in Yunlin and Changhua counties, after prosecutors in March received a tip-off that dubious pig vaccines were being sold to farmers.
During the investigation, prosecutors found that two men had been purchasing genuine vaccines at a cost of NT$3,750 (US$125) per vial, diluting them with distilled water and repackaging them.
The two suspects were selling the fake vaccines to animal drug distributors and pig farmers at NT$3,250 to NT$3,700 per vial, prosecutors said.
Seven other defendants were also charged because they did not verify the source of the vaccines before purchasing them from the two men for distribution, despite paying considerably less than usually, prosecutors said.
Investigators found that about 7,800 vials of fake vaccine had been sold to 32 pig farmers and about 393,600 pigs had been injected with diluted vaccines.
Many of the pigs died because the fake vaccines had been diluted to 8 percent of the normal strength and could not protect them against porcine circovirus (PCV).
The fake vaccines also contained live bacteria that might have caused infection in the pigs, prosecutors said.
The maximum penalty for making or importing counterfeit veterinary drugs is seven years in prison and a fine of NT$4.5 million, according to the Veterinary Drugs Control Act.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
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
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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