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The truth behind the egg shortage: A vaccine problem at a domestic breeding chicken farm caused millions of chickens to die suddenly, and the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine had no grasp of it

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(Exclusive) The truth behind the egg shortage! For the first time in the country, a vaccine problem at a breeding chicken farm caused millions of chickens to die suddenly, and the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine had no grasp of it at all

An "egg shortage" has emerged across Taiwan, and chicken farms are facing an even more serious "chicken shortage"! At the beginning of the year, the farm-gate price of eggs reached 36.5 yuan per Taiwan catty, a 20-year high. The Council of Agriculture attributed the egg shortage to last year's August 23 heavy rain flooding chicken farms and opened up egg imports to stabilize egg prices, but an investigation by reporters from Upstream and Downstream found that the root of the supply-demand imbalance was Taiwan's first-ever major failure at an "egg-laying breeding chicken farm"!

In the 106th year of the Republic of China, a rare failure of breeding chicken vaccination caused more than 2 million "Hy-Line" laying hens to die after being infected with Marek's disease virus. Half a year later, the August 23 heavy rain flooded southern Taiwan, and 600,000 laying hens died in the flood, once again severely damaging the domestic laying hen supply chain and causing a gap in rearing. Growing pullets could not be replenished in full, and farms could only rely on "old hens" in the houses to hold the line, which also made the egg shortfall grow larger and larger.

The problem at the breeding chicken farm severely affected the downstream shortage of laying hens. In the face of this major crisis, the Council of Agriculture nevertheless had no grasp of the epidemic situation. Feng Haidong, director-general of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, said that no cases of Marek's disease infection had been reported by laying hen farms, and whether there was vaccine failure still required an investigation. What is the actual situation at egg production sites? Reporters from Upstream and Downstream visited chicken farms to take you inside.

An "egg shortage" has emerged across Taiwan, and chicken farms are facing an even more serious "chicken shortage." Last year, vaccination failure at a breeding chicken farm, plus the August 23 flooding, severely damaged the laying hen supply chain 2

A vaccine problem at an egg-type breeding chicken farm affected 4 million laying hens. Chicks and growing pullets could not be replenished in full, and farms could only rely on "old hens" in the houses to struggle on and keep laying eggs. (Photo / Lin Peijun)

Epidemic outbreak, abnormal climate, problems with underground vaccines?

Winter is the season when avian influenza is most likely to occur, but those in the know understand that the epidemic situation can actually be glimpsed from egg prices. "If egg prices are very low, that means everyone is raising chickens well and there are no problems. On the contrary, when an epidemic breaks out, egg prices start to rise. This is a supply-demand issue." A egg farmer from Pingtung observed that last year the frequency of domestic epidemic outbreaks and chicken mortality rates both increased, and the timing of outbreaks also showed a trend of occurring earlier.

In the past, 30-40 weeks of age was the time when chickens were most susceptible to avian influenza, but now it happens earlier. "Before, when chickens got sick, they might recover after a few days, but now even strong chickens cannot hold out, and the whole flock keeps getting infected." The chicken farmer speculated that avian influenza had clearly become localized, and also believed that the increasingly urgent epidemic situation might be related to underground vaccines administered at a small number of chicken farms, all of which created a bigger gap in disease prevention.

The C egg farmer admitted that an epidemic also broke out on the farm last year, killing nearly half the laying hens. On average, 2,000 chicken carcasses had to be cleared each day, severely impacting the farm's own egg supply. But he stressed that consumers generally have a mistaken understanding of "toxic eggs." After seeing an avian influenza outbreak at a chicken farm, they dare not eat eggs for several days. "In fact, chickens infected with avian influenza simply will not lay eggs anymore!" He hoped consumers would not panic excessively.

In addition, egg farmers did not rule out that climate factors such as excessive heat and large temperature differences were one of the reasons affecting egg production efficiency last year. Egg farmers explained that laying hens are not afraid of cold, only of heat. Above 34°C, the flock cannot stand it, the eggs laid are smaller, amounting to "off-grade eggs," or they stop laying altogether. The room temperature of the chicken house must be controlled below 28°C so as not to weaken egg production capacity, while 24°C is the temperature laying hens like best.

Council of Agriculture: No cases of Marek's disease reported by laying hen farms

In the face of the domestic egg shortage, Li Yiqian, section chief of the Poultry Production Section of the Animal Husbandry Division of the Council of Agriculture, pointed out that the loss of at least 600,000 laying hens in last August's major flood was the main cause of the egg shortage. In addition, climate change affected the laying rate, and demand for eggs increased greatly during the Lunar New Year period, which made this year's "egg shortage" especially severe, rather than being caused by the epidemic. Feng Haidong, director-general of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, also said that no cases of Marek's disease infection had been reported by laying hen farms. To further understand whether there was a problem of vaccine failure, it would still be necessary to restart an investigation and interview relevant operators. He also stressed that for highly pathogenic avian influenza or other infectious diseases of chickens, disease prevention agencies in all areas were monitoring the epidemic situation.

However, according to the reporter's understanding, early this morning on the 21st, Xie Yaoqing, director of the Animal Husbandry Division of the Council of Agriculture, and the Central Animal Industry Association went south to Chiayi to hold an "Egg Production and Marketing Information Symposium" to understand current egg production and discuss subsequent production and marketing adjustment arrangements. In the listed report items, the first item clearly stated: "Investigate the problem of Marek's vaccine failure at a breeding chicken farm in November of the year before last (106th year of the Republic of China) and the losses of laying hens caused by last year's (107th year of the Republic of China) August 23 flood…" Obviously, officials had already heard about the failure at the breeding chicken farm. (Article to be continued)

 

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