NO SHORTAGE:Vendors imported more than 70,000 tonnes of chicken before the outbreaks, which would meet the next three months’ demand, an official said

Taipei Times
Date: May 17, 2015
By: Wu Liang-yi and Yang Ya-ming  /  Staff reporters

With chicken farms across the US hit by what US media outlets have called “the worst avian influenza on record,” the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine yesterday said that it has banned the import of chicken products from 15 US states identified as areas affected by the outbreak.

Bureau Director-General Chang Su-san (張淑賢) said that if an outbreak occurred in another US state, the bureau would add it to the list and block its raw and processed chicken imports.

The outbreaks in the US could spread nationwide, in which case the bureau would consider banning all chicken products from the US, she said.

A report published yesterday by Fox News called the outbreaks of H5N2 and H5N8 subtypes in the US “the worst outbreak of bird flu on record,” saying that as many as 33 million chickens have been — or are expected to be — destroyed.     [FULL  STORY]