The Council of Agriculture is facing criticism from lawmakers, who say it has failed to inform the public how to prevent African swine fever from entering Taiwan. Opposition lawmaker Chiu Chen-yuan says the council is spending significant sums of money fighting the disease, but has failed to update information on its own website.
African swine fever is a deadly and highly contagious disease affecting domestic and feral pigs. Taiwan has adopted tough measures to keep the disease out of the country, fearing that a breakout would wreak havoc on Taiwan’s pork industry, which is worth US$7.2 billion.
On Thursday, Cabinet spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng responded to the criticism, saying Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang takes the issue of African swine fever “very seriously”. He says the public should not import meat products.
Lo says Cabinet authorities were aware of the issue regarding the agriculture council website. He says people can find all the information on the Central Emergency Operation Center website on the dedicated page for African swine fever.