Viral disease allegedly imported from China's Fujian, 23 cattle culled

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/07/10
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan has confirmed the first Lumpy skin disease (LSD) cases in cattle on its outlying islands of Kinmen, and the authorities suspected the disease may have been imported from China.

A total of 23 out of 549 cattle at a government-operated farm in Kinmen were found to have contracted the infectious disease, the Kinmen County Animal and Plant Disease Control Center reported Wednesday (July 8). The ill animals have been culled and more culling is expected for better containment.

Genome sequencing suggests the virus that caused the illness has a 99 percent similarity with the one that led to an outbreak in China last year. There is reason to believe the virus may have been transmitted via mosquitoes or flies from Fujian, a province on the southeastern coast of China where the virus reportedly emerged in June, according to Huang Chin-cheng (黃金城), deputy minister of the Council of Agriculture.    [FULL  STORY]