04.03.2012

Animal health and quarantine officials sterilized a chicken farm in central Taiwan today after an outbreak of the H5N2 strain of avian influenza occurred there in December.
The Changhua Animal Disease Control Center disinfected the egg farm, where over 54,000 birds have been culled over the past three days, to prevent the highly virulent avian influenza from spreading.
The farm was the only one in the county to have had a confirmed outbreak, test results for another farm at the Tainan farm were still pending. Some 16 million egg-laying chickens are raised in Changhua.
In response to accusations that the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine had covered up the highly contagious outbreak, the bureau said the Changhua administration began an investigation as soon as the abnormal number of bird deaths was reported on Dec. 27, 2011.
From Dec. 31, when it imposed restrictions on transportation of the infected birds, to the day it completed its cull, the birds did not show any apparent symptoms of infection and death rates were below normal levels.
Two meetings have so far been held to discuss the case, in which the virus appeared to be a low pathogenic in certain tests but highly pathogenic after DNA tests.
Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine director Hsu Tien-lai resigned amid allegations he covered up an avian influenza outbreak, a day after authorities announced they had culled thousands of chickens.
The Council of Agriculture yesterday said Hsu’s resignation had been approved and that his case has been sent to the Control Yuan for investigation.
President Ma Ying-jeou demanded Sunday that the Council of Agriculture (COA) apologize to the nation for delaying the report about a highly infectious outbreak of avian influenza in central Taiwan, Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi said.
Ma also demanded that personnel involved in the delay be punished
Yang Wen-yuan, a division director at the bureau said export losses for egg products was estimated at between NT$500 million (US$17 million) and NT$700 million.
After analyzing the sampled genes, it was concluded that the avian influenza found is an H5N2 HPAI strain. The first case was found in Changhua on Dec. 27. It was only on Friday (02/03) that the case was determined to be highly pathogenic.