Three Positive Cases of African Swine Fever in Sea-Drifted Pig Carcasses in Three Days, Violations of Meat Import Rules Climb Again
Infected sea-drifted pig carcasses keep hitting Taiwan's outlying islands, with three positive cases in three days! Kinmen County today (the 10th) confirmed a fourth sea-drifted pig infected with African swine fever, found on the coastal beach at Tongqiang Mountain in Jincheng Township, and it is judged to have drifted from China. So far, 10 sea-drifted pigs have been found on our outlying islands (7 in Kinmen, 3 in Matsu), and with the confirmed cases in Nangan Township, Lianjiang County and Jinhu Township, Kinmen on the 9th and 10th, the cumulative total of African swine fever virus nucleic acid positive cases now stands at 6 (4 in Kinmen County, 2 in Lianjiang County), putting the whole country's disease prevention efforts even more on edge.
124 Pig Farms Using Kitchen Waste Still Non-Compliant, Continued Guidance for Transition or Fines
As for the progress of guidance for transition reported by county and city governments regarding pig farms using kitchen waste, the response center said that as of April 10, a total of 744 pig farms had passed the kitchen waste reuse review, 979 had switched to feed, and 134 had applied for exit subsidies; those that had not obtained review approval and were still using kitchen waste to raise pigs numbered 131, of which 7 had already been fined, and the remaining 124 were mainly distributed in Taoyuan (34 farms), Pingtung (25 farms), Taichung (23 farms), Hsinchu (23 farms) and Nantou (11 farms). Since the deadline for applying for feed-switching subsidies was only until the end of last month, any future violations will leave only the option of fines.
Huang Jincheng emphasized that local animal disease prevention offices and environmental protection bureaus will be required to continue investigations and complete the guidance for transition work or impose fines on livestock farms as soon as possible.