Foot-and-mouth disease in cattle reported again in Kinmen

The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) of the Council of Agriculture issued an alert this evening (the 10th), stating that a farm in Kinmen near the livestock farm where type A foot-and-mouth disease in cattle was confirmed on May 8 has reported another case: one draft ox has been confirmed by the UK's World Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease as having type A foot-and-mouth disease. BAPHIQ said the animal in the newly reported outbreak has been culled, and other livestock farms within 3 kilometers will be closely monitored; BAPHIQ also said that because the risk remains low, after review by experts and scholars, the ban on shipping fresh meat to Taiwan remains in place, while heat-treated meat products that have passed sanitary quarantine may still be shipped to Taiwan.

New cattle case of foot-and-mouth disease confirmed in Kinmen, a draft ox rather than a beef cow

On May 8, news emerged from Kinmen that 1 head of cattle had been infected with foot-and-mouth disease. Confirmation by the UK laboratory verified it as type A foot-and-mouth disease in cattle, and the virus type showed a similarity of up to 98.9% with those in China and Russia. At that time, BAPHIQ had already culled 281 head of cattle and conducted 3 rounds of visits to even-toed animals within 1 kilometer of the farm where the outbreak was reported.

Among the 62 livestock farms visited after May 8, BAPHIQ initially found that 1 sheep and 3 cattle, across a total of 4 livestock farms, tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease non-structural protein (NSP) antibodies. To be prudent, BAPHIQ tested again, and the results showed that no NSP was detected in the sheep, so the sheep was excluded as a possible infection; the other 3 cattle still tested positive for NSP, so on May 29 BAPHIQ sent the specimens to the World Organisation for Animal Health's Pirbright Institute World Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease in the UK for testing.

The test report came out on June 8, confirming that 1 head of cattle tested positive for type A foot-and-mouth disease neutralizing antibodies in serum, while the other 2 head of cattle did not. Therefore, in accordance with epidemic prevention standards, BAPHIQ has culled that head of cattle. BAPHIQ Director-General Chang Shu-hsien said that this head of cattle was a draft animal used for plowing fields, not a beef farm animal.

BAPHIQ said that because the 2 livestock farms where the outbreaks were reported are close to each other, for convenience of epidemic prevention monitoring, BAPHIQ will treat the 2 farms as the same outbreak and will collect samples from all even-toed animal livestock farms within a radius of 1 kilometer of the outbreak site; for the 174 even-toed animal livestock farms within 1 to 3 kilometers, on the recommendation of experts and scholars, it will randomly test 50 farms with a 95% confidence interval, allocate the number of samples evenly according to the ratio of pig, cattle and sheep farms, randomly collect serum from 15 animals per farm, and collect samples from all animals if there are fewer than 15, in order to confirm animal health status.

Fresh meat from Kinmen still banned from shipment to Taiwan; processed products such as beef jerky may be shipped to Taiwan

Chang Shu-hsien said that BAPHIQ has asked the Kinmen County Government to dispatch dedicated personnel to supervise hygiene management at meat markets, slaughterhouses, animal transport vehicles and elsewhere, and that items whose ban on shipment to Taiwan was lifted in mid-May are not affected.

At present, fresh meat from Kinmen is still banned from shipment to Taiwan, while Kinmen pastries, gongtang (peanut candy) containing meat floss, Guangdong porridge, heat-treated defatted processed products and beef jerky may still be shipped to Taiwan. BAPHIQ said that because pastries, gongtang and Guangdong porridge contain little meat and have been cooked, the risk level is low; defatted processed products, beef jerky and similar items that have been cooked at above 70 degrees C for 30 minutes, or at 100 degrees C for 2 to 3 minutes, and that have been inspected by BAPHIQ, confirmed to pose no risk of cross-contamination and to meet hygiene standards, may be shipped to Taiwan.

BAPHIQ stressed that it will subsequently ask the Coast Guard Administration of the Executive Yuan and the Customs Administration of the Ministry of Finance to strengthen quarantine work at fishing ports and airports, and to step up crackdowns on illegal animal smuggling, in order to prevent the epidemic from entering Taiwan. At the same time, it will require disinfection procedures for feed trucks, transport vehicles and workers entering and leaving livestock farms in Kinmen County, including drivers and personnel at farms and meat markets.

BAPHIQ called on livestock farmers and the public not to visit animal-rearing facilities in epidemic areas such as mainland China, so as not to carry the virus back to Taiwan, and said that people with a similar "travel history" should shower, change clothes and shoes and carry out thorough disinfection as soon as possible after returning home, and may only enter animal-rearing facilities again after 1 week.