The China Post
Date: December 3, 2016
By: The China Post news staff
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Animal quarantine authorities have stepped up a crackdown on illegal poultry farms
A duck farm is seen in this undated file photo. Yunlin County government Friday called on poultry farmers in the region to heighten alert after outbreaks of strains of avian flu that can infect humans are reported in Japan and Korea. Over 10,000 chickens were culled in Yunlin after an outbreak of the H5N2 avian flu in June. (CNA)
in a bid to contain the spread of bird flu.
With the neighboring countries of Japan and South Korea already hit by widespread bird flu outbreaks, poultry farms in Taiwan must be put under close monitoring, officials from the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) said Friday.
A Cabinet-organized nationwide meeting was held in Kaohsiung Friday afternoon to discuss ways to consolidate efforts to tackle bird flu, while BAPHIQ, part of the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture, had already begun a joint campaign with local authorities last week to step up inspections of poultry farms, the officials said.
In November, 15 poultry farms were fined for violating the regulations, the BAPHIQ said, adding the respective local governments would assess the fines — ranging from NT$50,000 to NT$150,000 — for the violators.
According to BAPHIQ, poultry farms in Hungary, Austria and Sweden have recently reported cases of infections by the H5N8 bird flu virus. In Denmark, Holland, Poland, Germany, Switzerland and Croatia, the H5N8 virus has been detected on wild birds.
In Japan’s Niigata and Nagano, about 140,000 domesticated birds had been culled as of Nov. 28 due to bird flu outbreaks, according to BAPHIQ. In South Korea, more than 1.42 million birds from 41 H5N6-infected poultry farms have been culled. [FULL STORY]
