HIGH ALERT:Several cities warned people they face stiff fines for feeding wild birds, with Taipei saying that exposure to the birds’ excrement raises infection risks

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 19, 2017
By: Staff Writer, with CNA

With assistance from the military, animal quarantine authorities culled more than 22,000

chickens on a farm in Yunlin County’s Shueilin Township (水林) yesterday, as part of efforts to fight avian influenza.

Since late December last year, bird flu has been discovered in 17 poultry farms in the county, with over 150,000 birds having been culled, Yunlin County Animal and Plant Disease Control Center Director Liao Pei-chih (廖培志) said.

Outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N6 strain this month have put the poultry industry on high alert, he said.    [FULL  STORY]