Two Chinese pork jerky products seized at customs have tested positive for African swine fever, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.
Tests found the two products collected from the quarantine amnesty bins at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) on Jan. 23 and 24 — one from Jiangsu Province and the other without a label indicating origin — had strains of the virus identical to those found in China, the council said.
The results brought the number of confiscated pork products testing positive for the disease to 20, council data showed.
Photo: CNA
Two more Chinese visitors on Saturday were denied entry into the country after failing to pay a NT$200,000 (US$6,505) fine for the illegal import of pork products, bringing the total of barred visitors since the regulation took effect on Jan. 25 to six, all Chinese, council data showed.
The council reiterated that it hoped Beijing authorities would provide more information about the disease, after the Rural Development Foundation on Saturday received a response from China’s Association for Agricultural Exchange Across the Taiwan Strait.
The foundation has since 2004 served as an information channel with the association, which is governed by Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
It first wrote to the Chinese association on Dec. 20 last year to request information about the African swine fever outbreak in China, but the latter replied on Jan. 15 that the outbreaks were “sporadic” and called on Taiwanese to stop spreading false information, according to copies of the letters shown on the foundation’s Web site.
It wrote to the association again on Jan. 25 and received a reply on Saturday.
The disease has spread to 25 Chinese provinces, municipalities and regions, with 950,000 pigs having been culled, but blocks over infection areas in 23 provinces have been lifted, showing China’s quarantine measures were effective and that the outbreaks have abated, the association said.
While it was a sign of progress that the Chinese side finally replied, the information was of no avail as the same data is available from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the council said on Saturday, adding that it expected Chinese authorities to provide “complete” information about the outbreaks.
The council last year said it wanted to send a delegation of academics and technical experts to China to collect information on the outbreaks, but has yet to receive a response from the other side, council Chief Secretary Chang Chih-sheng (張致盛) said yesterday.
‘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