African swine fever prevention draft awaits approval, e-commerce platforms bear heavier epidemic prevention responsibility
Selling unquarantined meat through e-commerce platforms will no longer be just a simple matter of taking it down in the future. The Council of Agriculture has drafted amendments to the "Statute for Prevention and Control of Animal Infectious Diseases," adding Article 38-3. If e-commerce platforms fail to cooperate by adding epidemic prevention warnings, retaining the data of the persons who post, sell or order, and restricting access to, browsing of, or removing relevant webpage content, they will be fined, with a maximum fine of NT$150,000. The draft is currently awaiting discussion and approval by the Executive Yuan meeting.
Prevention regulations have become stricter, mainly because the African swine fever epidemic in neighboring countries is severe, with no obvious signs of improvement, and there are still many cases of citizens illegally bringing meat through customs. Huang Chin-cheng, deputy chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said, "Whether it is an epidemic area (for African swine fever) or a non-epidemic area, meat products cannot be brought into the country. Those from Europe and America should not be brought back either. We have been strengthening publicity, but people still love to bring them, and the amount discarded in disposal boxes has not decreased significantly."
Amendments strengthen e-commerce platform operators' responsibility. Failure to comply with epidemic prevention regulations carries a maximum fine of 150,000 yuan
In order to prevent people from selling quarantine items imported without quarantine on online shopping platforms, the Council of Agriculture increased the responsibility of e-commerce operators and added Article 38-3 to the Statute for Prevention and Control of Animal Infectious Diseases. The draft amendment stipulates that internet platforms should add necessary warnings related to quarantine prevention publicity, retain the personal data of persons who post, sell or order, and restrict access to, browsing of, or remove relevant webpage content. The penalties have also been revised accordingly. Those who violate the above provisions may be fined not less than NT$30,000 and not more than NT$150,000. The current progress of the legislative amendment is that it has passed the Executive Yuan's legal review meeting and, after being submitted to and approved by the Executive Yuan meeting, will be sent to the Legislative Yuan for amendment.
Huang Chin-cheng said that the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine has always had a team monitoring the internet to see whether anyone is selling unquarantined meat on websites, whether there are transaction records, and whether there are express deliveries coming in. Statistics from November last year to April this year show that e-commerce platforms blocked or removed a total of 6.66 million product listings for unquarantined animal and plant products, and 230 sellers had their accounts suspended.
The positive rate of African swine fever virus in Chinese meat products in airport disposal boxes remains high
The Council of Agriculture believes that border control work should be strengthened, because according to the latest information from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), African swine fever continues to occur in several countries in Europe and Africa, as well as in 4 countries in Asia including China, Mongolia, Vietnam and Cambodia. A slaughterhouse in Hong Kong, China also tested positive in early May, showing that the epidemic is spreading and the risk of the disease being introduced is extremely high.
Statistics on the amount of meat discarded by passengers or illegally carried show that from August 27, 2018 to May 16, 2019, 1,625 cases had been tested, with 59 positive cases (including 57 from mainland China and 2 from Vietnam). The positive detection rate from mainland China remains high: 1 case in October 2018 (0.6%), 2 cases in November (1.1%), 4 cases in December (2.2%), 11 cases in January 2019 (6.2%), 11 cases in February (8.0%), 5 cases in March (3.9%), 12 cases in April (7.6%), and 11 cases in May (7.5%). Huang Chin-cheng said the figures confirm that the risk of African swine fever being spread by mainland Chinese pork products cannot be ignored.
The people most fond of bringing meat back into the country are none other than Taiwanese themselves. According to Council of Agriculture statistics on penalties for illegal carrying of animals and plants into the country, from December 14, 2018 to May 26, 2019, a total of 1,385 penalties were issued: 537 cases involved Republic of China (Taiwan) nationality, 481 cases involved Chinese nationality, 85 cases involved Vietnamese nationality, 40 cases involved Philippine nationality, and 39 cases involved Japanese nationality. Penalized passengers of Republic of China (Taiwan) and Chinese nationality accounted for 73.5% of all penalties.
GPS devices for live pig and carcass transport vehicles 6All to be completed by the end of the month
As for the progress of epidemic prevention work among domestic pig farmers, there are only 33 farms that use kitchen waste to raise pigs but have not obtained approval and have not switched to feed, including: 11 farms in Hsinchu County, 4 each in Miaoli County and Nantou County, and 3 each in Taichung City and Changhua County. Of the 33 farms, 21 have already been fined, and 12 have not yet indicated whether they choose to exit pig farming or switch to raising pigs with feed. Huang Chin-cheng stressed that inspections and guidance will still be carried out to completion, and those already fined can also be fined repeatedly.
Of the 1,425 live pig and carcass transport vehicles to be equipped with GPS, 930 had been completed by the end of May, and all are expected to be completed by the end of June. This is necessary work for establishing a mechanism to trace back epidemics. Vehicles equipped with GPS can be tracked. If an epidemic breaks out in the future, it will be possible to trace which livestock farms and slaughterhouses the transport vehicles have visited, so that the epidemic can be controlled one step earlier.