Retired professor Luo Chu-fang (羅竹芳) has become the first Taiwanese to win a World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) honorary award, National Cheng Kung University said on Sunday.
The OIE confers annual awards for outstanding contributions to the control of animal disease and/or veterinary public health.
Luo was honored for her research into shrimp diseases, which led to her lab becoming famous for studying new shrimp diseases and the development of diagnostic tools to detect viral diseases in shrimp, the school said in a statement.
Photo courtesy of National Cheng Kung University
Luo taught at National Taiwan University, where she conducted the bulk of her research, before transferring to Cheng Kung in 2013, where she taught until her retirement last month.
Despite her retirement, Luo’s enthusiasm for research is unabated, and she is working on the nation’s first standardized shrimp breeding area in Hualien County, the statement said.
Luo began studying crustaceans in 1994 after witnessing the effects of the white spot syndrome virus on shrimp and the aquaculture industry.
Her research at the time on the pathogenic mechanisms of white spot disease, which is caused by a virus, was very important, a person in the shrimp industry said.
Scientists had thought that the disease was caused by a baculovirus, but Luo used DNA sequencing and viral pathogen assembly mechanisms to determine that it was caused by a new virus.
Thanks to that research, Luo’s lab was designated a reference lab by the OIE.
Having published several papers on shrimp breeding while at NTU, after switching schools, she used the results to help aquaculture farmers develop their businesses, Luo said.
While at Cheng Kung, Luo studied the breeding of specific pathogen-free shrimp and cultured shrimp resistant to viral diseases, set up a research and development center for shrimp aquaculture, and built a high-tech shrimp farm to promote a new form of shrimp farming management.
In 2013, Luo collaborated with researchers in Thailand to develop diagnostic kits for the detection of viral diseases in shrimp, which have tremendously benefited the marine biotechnology industry and shrimp aquaculture, Cheng Kung said in the statement.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
The age requirement for commercial pilots and airline transport pilots is to be lowered by two years, to 18 and 21 years respectively, to expand the pool of pilots in accordance with international standards, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced today. The changes are part of amendments to articles 93, 119 and 121 of the Regulations Governing Licenses and Ratings for Airmen (航空人員檢定給證管理規則). The amendments take into account age requirements for aviation personnel certification in the Convention on International Civil Aviation and EU’s aviation safety regulations, as well as the practical needs of managing aviation personnel licensing, the ministry said. The ministry
RSS