Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/03/14
By: Yang Shu-min and William Yen

Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine

Taipei, March 14 (CNA) Test results conducted on a pig carcass discovered on a beach in the offshore county of Kinmen a day earlier came back positive for African swine fever (ASF), according to Taiwan’s Central Emergency Operation Center for ASF Thursday.

Samples taken from the carcass were found to contain sequences of gene fragments 100 percent identical to those of the ASF virus strain in China, the center said.

This is the third ASF case detected in pig carcasses washed ashore in Taiwan’s offshore islands.

In the latest case, the carcass was found on a beach in Kinmen’s Lieyu Township, approximately six kilometers from the Chinese city of Xiamen and close to the Jiulong River estuary in China, the center said in a statement.    [FULL  STORY]