LEARNING FROM MISTAKES: The first bid at ending vaccinations in 2009 and getting off the OIE list failed as the foot-and-mouth virus was still present in the environment

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 15, 2020
By: Chien Hui-ju and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taiwan’s success in eliminating foot-and-mouth disease has been due to respect accorded animal health experts, Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said yesterday, amid speculation that the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) is ready to remove the nation from a list of countries free of the disease without vaccination, perhaps as early as today.

Removal from the OIE’s list means that Taiwan would be able to export fresh pork products once again.

Taiwan had been free of foot-and-mouth disease for more than 68 years before an outbreak of the disease in March 1997, forcing the culling of millions of pigs and crippling the nation’s pork industry.

The council first tried ending the use of foot-and-mouth vaccines for pigs in January 2009, but the following month seven cases of the disease were reported, Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]