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The annual Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching. Some new immigrants miss the taste of their hometown and smuggle pork products and moon cakes into Taiwan. Some smuggled meat products that have entered the market have tested positive for the African swine fever virus. The police units immediately investigated the source, flow, and destination of the contaminated products to strictly maintain the three-year African swine fever epidemic prevention work that is now facing tests. Taoyuan is located on the front line of the country and the city government has detected positive cases of African swine fever from smuggled meat. A total of more than 5,000 samples have been investigated, and 4 have tested positive. To prevent pigs from being infected through food waste, the city government announced the temporary suspension of using food waste to feed pigs for a month.
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Taoyuan City Government announced the "African Swine Fever Alert" to the public. Photo/Provided by Taoyuan City Government
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-Tsan (鄭文燦) stated that the Taoyuan Department of Environmental Protection (桃園市政府環保局) and the Agriculture Department (農業局) of the Taoyuan City Government will implement relevant contingency plans together with compost plants and incineration plants in response to food waste disposal problems and request the Environment Maintenance and Inspection Division (環境清潔稽查大隊) and other units to properly handle recycled food waste. At the same time, the Agriculture Department is requested to immediately communicate with the Swine ROC Association (養豬協會) and the 166 pig farmers in the city, with regards to changing the kind of feeds and subsidy principles, etc., as soon as possible to help the industry understand the countermeasures related to African swine fever and call on the pig farmers to stop using food waste to feed pigs and change the kind of feeds used starting from September. Once African swine fever occurs, the pigs that need to be killed can be incinerated and buried on-site with the approval of the Environmental Protection Administration (環保署).
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The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and we will jointly prevent African swine fever. Photo/Provided by Taoyuan City Government
In addition, to prevent African swine fever, the whole of Taiwan is mobilized to investigate smuggled meat. The African Swine Fever Central Disaster Response Center (非洲豬瘟中央災害應變中心) said that the police in various counties and cities have seized suspected smuggled meat and meat mooncakes. A total of 190 samples have been sent for inspection and a total of 12 samples tested positive as of August 30. Sellers are reminded not to sell meat from unknown sources. If the regulations are violated, the seized items will be confiscated and destroyed in accordance with the law. In accordance with Article 41 of the Regulations on Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Diseases, the maximum sentence is 7 years in prison and a fine of up to NT$3 million.
