Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/15
By: Yang Shu-min and Lilian Wu
Taipei, March 15 (CNA) The Council of Agriculture (COA) said Wednesday that it will
COA Minister Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢)
not buy avian flu vaccines from overseas but will produce them itself, amid criticism that it has squandered a lot of money buying imported vaccines, only to end up destroying them after they reached their expiration date.
“We’re not planning to buy them this year,” COA Minister Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) said.
He made the remarks in a report to a legislative committee on the situation of the nation’s avian flu outbreaks and quarantine measures.
Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) of the opposition New Power Party cited statistics to show that the COA spent NT$39.48 million (US$1.28 million) on avian flu vaccines between 2012 and 2015, but destroyed them without putting them to use.
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