Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/06
By: Yang Shu-min and Elizabeth Hsu
Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) An avian flu outbreak on poultry farms in Taiwan has
CNA file photo
intensified over the past few weeks as the weather turned cooler, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said Wednesday.
It said that in the period from Dec. 4 last year to Jan. 4, avian flu hit 22 farms in Taiwan, escalating from one or two farms per week since last autumn.
Over the past three weeks, four to five poultry farms per week have been reporting infections, according to the COA’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine.
Shih Tai-hua (施泰華), deputy chief of the bureau, said 10 of the 22 farms confirmed to have been infected in the one-month period from Dec. 4 last year were hit by the highly pathogenic H5N2 virus, a new strain that has been discovered in Taiwan for the first time. [FULL STORY]
