The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday urged the public to refrain from drinking unpasteurized milk following reports of people infected with the H5N1 virus after drinking raw milk in the US.
According to CNN, 46 dairy farms across nine states in the US are experiencing avian influenza spread in cows, with one farm worker developing conjunctivitis after being infected with H5N1.
CDC spokeswoman Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑惠) said this was the first instance of the H5N1 virus infecting cows and the first instance in which a human was infected with H5N1 by ingesting milk from infected cows.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
She said the CDC convened a meeting on Monday with experts and officials from the Ministry of Agriculture to discuss potential policies.
The participants agreed that while there has been no incident in Taiwan, the public should refrain from drinking raw, unpasteurized milk.
The National Institute for Animal Health said at the meeting that based on information from international gene banks, the H5N1 strain affecting cows is a North American variant distinct from the H5N1 viruses found in Taiwan.
The ministry said it would step up measures to inspect the health of cows and contact the CDC if necessary.
Asked for comment, Food and Drug Administration Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) told reporters that the US government had confirmed that the H5N1 virus had been found in unpasteurized milk, but the residual virus after sterilization was no longer transmissible.
Tseng said that US butchers have veterinarians making routine inspections and any products that do not meet standards are destroyed.
A random sampling of ground beef on the market has also yielded negative results, Tseng said, adding that the US government has pledged to conduct more research on the related risks.
The US is also preparing vaccines to handle the situation, Tseng added.
The CDC said that it is amending the standards to report category-A influenza and has updated its suggested safety precautions for staff working on farms during an outbreak to minimize the impact and maximize public safety.
Meanwhile, Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital Department of Infectious Diseases physician Huang Chien-hsien (黃建賢) told reporters yesterday that pigs, among mammals, are particularly susceptible to avian influenza, but it was the first instance that cows had been infected.
He said such an occurrence suggests a virus mutation that could spread to other species, although it has not yet happened.
Huang warned people traveling to areas known to be infected with the H5N1 virus to avoid coming into contact with birds or mammals.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS