African Swine Fever Found in More Seized Pork Products|防堵中國非洲豬瘟 又攔截2染病豬肉入境

African swine fever continues to spread across China. The Council of Agriculture found two more batches of contaminated pork products brought into Taiwan by travelers arriving from China earlier this month. The new penalty system has not been announced by the Presidential Office, which means violations are subject to just a NT$ 15,000 fine.


A Taiwanese traveler bought these sausages in Chongqing and brought them back to Taiwan on Dec. 1. They were seized by customs at Taoyuan International Airport. The following day, customs seized more sausages from a Chinese tourist arriving from Harbin. Both were fined NT$ 15,000. Customs has so far found African swine fever contamination in five seized pork products.

The inspection ratio and violation rate are both going down, but everyone can see there are still these so-called "positive" cases here. This means these risks still exist.

Although the new maximum fine is NT$ 1 million, new penalties have not yet been announced by the Presidential Office. This means the most violators can be fined right now is NT$ 15,000. The Council of Agriculture believes African swine fever could very likely spread to Southeast Asia and plans to step up inspections on incoming flights from Vietnam and other countries in the region.

Regardless of whether it's so-called luggage or carry-on luggage, we have detection dogs serving as a line of defense against disease.

The council recently completed its inspection of 794 hog farms that feed livestock kitchen waste. Five small farms failed the inspection after inspectors found they were not steaming their kitchen waste. Under the Waste Disposal Act, the council could only fine the farms between NT$ 1,200 and NT$ 6,000.