Avian influenza may require culling millions of poultry; animal protection groups urge the Council of Agriculture to set humane culling standards
Since the avian flu outbreak on the 9th, the Council of Agriculture has already culled nearly 300,000 chickens, ducks and geese, and the COA estimates that as many as one million may be culled. However, a survey by the Taiwan Animal Social Research Institute of personnel in 7 counties and cities where poultry culling took place found that the definition of humane culling varies greatly from place to place. Some counties and cities do not confirm that an animal's pupils have dilated and that breathing has stopped, and judge only by naked eye whether it is still moving, seriously affecting animal welfare. Executive director Chu Tseng-hung said that the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) guidelines for culling in disease control were already updated to the 7th edition in 2014, while the COA is still stuck on 2013, and should update and establish SOPs as soon as possible.
According to the institute's survey, current county and city culling methods fall roughly into 4 types: chloral hydrate + dry ice or carbon dioxide, chloral hydrate, carbon dioxide or dry ice, and direct bagging to wait for death, roughly following the "Emergency Response Manual for the Prevention of Avian Influenza (H5, H7 Subtypes)" set by the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine.
However, institute executive director Chu Tseng-hung said that the bureau only sets out principles and has not established complete culling operation standards, and that the "culling for disease control" chapter of the OIE "Terrestrial Animal Health Code" was updated to its 7th edition between 200 and 2014, clearly stating that the use of dry ice causes the surrounding air to cool rapidly, making poultry die in pain, and recommending culling with carbon dioxide, or carbon dioxide plus a certain proportion of an inert gas such as argon.
But Chu Tseng-hung said that Taiwan does not specify the carbon dioxide concentration for humane culling of poultry, leaving it entirely up to the personnel carrying it out; in addition, the United States Department of Agriculture long ago banned chloral hydrate, because the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) 2013 latest edition of the "Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals" stresses that chloral hydrate is only a sedative and, unless drunk in excess, will only cause unconsciousness; to cause death it must be combined with carbon dioxide, and the animals must first be deprived of water, then chloral hydrate put into the drinking water so that the poultry drink it out of thirst, but waterfowl farms usually have ponds, making water deprivation difficult, and sick poultry will not want to drink water anyway.
Because of insufficient culling time and disease-control personnel, and in order to clear the site quickly, some animals are bagged before they are unconscious, dying miserably during transport or being rendered alive, seriously affecting animal welfare.
Chu Tseng-hung said the OIE repeatedly stresses that animal welfare and health are one and the same, and that failure to carry out humane culling also subjects the personnel carrying it out to severe psychological pressure and exposes them to disease risk. The government should set up an animal welfare office or officer as soon as possible, update animal culling or euthanasia methods, and establish standard operating procedures, such as the culling method suited to each kind of animal, the concentration and time for drug or gas culling, staff equipment, and the bags and materials used to hold animals, etc.
COA: willing to revise procedures
Chen Bao-ji said that the culling procedures for waterfowl and land fowl differ, and that county and city governments currently all follow the procedures published by the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, but that if they truly do not fit animal welfare, the COA is willing to revise the relevant culling regulations.
He also admitted that manpower is indeed insufficient at present, with about 500 slaughter veterinarians, and that the COA has already, through the Executive Yuan avian flu response task force meeting, asked the Ministry of National Defense to send military personnel to assist; as of the 16th of this month, 819 troops had been dispatched, assisting with disinfection at 1,949 sites and the transport of 9,760 birds. If local government culling manpower remains insufficient, workers may also be hired, with applications submitted to the COA for verified subsidies.