Taiwan: no pork exports to Singapore due to FMD
The island of Taiwan has suspended raw pork exports to Singapore after a Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak on two farms resulted in the slaughter of more than 600 pigs, news agency AFP reports.
A total of 68 pigs at a farm in central Yunlin county showed symptoms of the disease early February and an outbreak in neighbouring Changhua was reported five days later, an official at the Council of Agriculture’s animal quarantine division said. There, 509 animals were killed.
All the 75 farms found near these two areas were disinfected. No other infected farm has been found.
A total of 677 pigs were culled after the disease was confirmed, while the farms were disinfected, OIE confirmed, on the basis of a report by Dr Watson H.T. Sung, director general at the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine in Taipei.
In total, Taiwan exports for US $3.2 million worth of raw pork to Singapore annually. The pork is now not exported anywhere else, according to AFP.
The last outbreak of FMD in Taiwan dates from 1997. At that time, more than three million pigs needed to be slaughtered.
Related websites:
AFP
World Health Organization (OIE)©
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