News Brief: official resigns over H5N2 "cover-up"

Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine director Hsu Tien-lai (許天來) resigned yesterday amid allegations he covered up a bird flu outbreak, a day after authorities announced they had culled thousands of chickens, Taipei Times reports today (full article here).

The piece also carries some more details carried yesterday by the Chinese-language papers about a possible cover-up (see NOMM here).

"According to Kevin H. J. Lee (李惠仁), a freelance journalist who spent more than six years investigating avian influenza in Taiwan and directed a documentary entitled A Secret That Can’t Be Exposed (不能戳的秘密), the council concealed the truth about the virus."

“In the process of my investigation, I discovered the situation is very different to what the council tells us. I discovered that the council has lied about the whole thing since 2004,” Lee said.


Additional reporting by Shad for NOMM:

According to Lee's documentary (see here: youtube),  Hsu Tien-lai has a habit of resigning to "take blame" only to be reinstated and promoted. Fourteen years ago he stepped down from his position as section chief to take responsibility during the foot-and-mouth epidermic. Interestingly, his co-resignee on that occasion, Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄), had risen as high as COA minister until the recent cabinet reshuffle and was, therefore, in charge of the council when Lee sent in his three dead chickens.

Lee claims Hsu sent back his chicken without testing it. When Hsu was questioned about this by local media yesterday, he said that as a public servant he was forbidden from receiving gifts from members of the public.

Perhaps for his role in undermining world animal quarantine and health regulations, thereby extending Taiwan's exports by two months or more, and protecting the income of Taiwan's poultry farmers, Hsu will be rewarded himself by appointment to COA minister in the not too distant future.

News Brief: new bird flu cases discovered and covered up

Almost 60,000 poultry in Changhua and Tainan were slaughtered late last week following an outbreak of bird flu, the Taipei Times reports today (full article here).

According to the Council of Agriculture (農委會; COA), it first appeared at a farm in Changhua in late December and is Taiwan’s first outbreak of the H5N2 avian influenza strain. 

If it turns out that the virus is highly pathogenic, Taiwan could be listed as an infected region and its exports of poultry products banned.

Poultry meat is one of the country’s top poultry product exports, with a value of between NT$360 million and NT$370 million per year, said Hsu Kuei-sen (許桂森), director of the council’s husbandry division, the Times reports.


What the Times did not say, but was covered by many Chinese-language papers, including its sister paper the Liberty Times, was that there was evidence of high pathogenicity as early as December, and the COA not only covered it up but also failed to report this to the international agency responsible.

Documentary director Li Hui-ren (李惠仁) is said to be behind the discovery. Alerted by the rise in egg prices late last year he became suspicious, and tracked down large numbers of dead birds. Three he sent to the COA and the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (防檢局), and one he had tested. According to  Li, it was at this time in December that the COA should have alerted the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

News Brief: Always ask the price before you order ... testicles

Soups cooked with sesame oil (麻油) are popular warming dishes during these cold months, but a Mr. Yang (楊先生) of Taipei City has complained about being charged NT$400 for a bowl of “sesame-oil mixed-ingredients soup” (麻油綜合湯) by a vendor in the New Year provisions market (年貨大街), ETTV (東森電視) reports today (full Chinese-language article here).

The soup contained a chicken thigh bone and meat, four chicken animelles (睪丸; testicles to you and me) and a good number of kidney slices. When presented with the dish and asked the price, but not having yet tasted it, he complained that NT$400 was far too expensive, but the stall owner told him that, since it was already cooked, he would have to pay for it.

Having begrudgingly paid for and eaten it, he compared prices at other stalls, finding similar dishes, but containing one more testicle, two more pieces of chicken meat and one extra slice of kidney, for NT$300.

When ETTV visited [yesterday?] afternoon, the stall was not yet open for business, but the price had been added to the advertising board using pen. The market authorities said that following a series of complaints from the public they had suggested the owner indicate the price to avoid future problems of this nature.

Translation © Jiyue Publications 2012

News Brief: First H5N2 of 2012 reported

Taiwan has reported its first H5N2 bird flu case this year after test results confirmed that chickens at a poultry farm in Changhua County were infected with the virus, the China Post reports today (full article here).

Despite the infection, the farm has not logged unusual death rates, contrary to rumors that a large number of its chickens have died, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) said.
But the farm has already been put under quarantine, and banned from transporting its chickens outside. Its eggs, however, are still allowed to be sent to the market after pasteurization, the bureau said.
 
All quarantine measures will continue to be in place until the all safety concerns are cleared, the bureau said.
According to figures from the nation's chicken farm association, the supply of eggs has remained normal in the past three months, totaling 25 million.

News Brief: activists urge end to poultry slaughter

Activists urge end to poultry slaughter

About a dozen people from the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST; 台灣動物社會研究會) and Wenshan Community College (文山社區大學) in Taipei gathered at the Council of Agriculture yesterday to present a petition urging the council to put an immediate stop to the slaughter of poultry in traditional markets, the Taipei Times reports today (full article here).

They asked the COA to explain why a proclamation prohibiting the slaughter of poultry in traditional markets that was to be implemented in April 2008 was first postponed and finally abandoned last year.

The advocates said the prohibition related not just to animal welfare, but was also a way of preventing the spread of avian influenza and ensuring sanitary conditions, and violated the Animal Industry Act (畜牧法) and the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法)

COA data from last year show there are 62 registered poultry slaughterhouses in Taiwan, which handle about 120 million chickens every year, the Taipei Times notes.




                                                                                                     Text and photos © Taipei Times

Feature: Vegetarian Riddle

In case this blog is becoming a little "serious news heavy", here is a more light-hearted feature
(apologies for cross-posting):

吃素的人吃/喝什麼牛, 什麼雞, 什麼羊, 什麼馬, 什麼魚, 什麼猴, 什麼鼠, 什麼豬? …
What kind of "cow", "chicken", "sheep", "horse", "fish", "monkey", "rat" and "pig" products can vegetarians eat?
(8 answers in Chinese, each 2 or 3 characters, though other variations perhaps possible.)

[p.s. this is "environmental vegetarianism", therefore not 牛奶 (cow's milk) or 雞蛋 (chicken egg), i.e. no animal products]
[p.p.s. no 素雞 ("vegetarian chicken") or anything like that]

for an example of what is sought:
if it asked for “dragon”, the answer might be 龍眼  (longan; lit. "dragon eye") or 龍鬚菜 ("dragon whisker vegetable"; see photo)

                                                                               Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

Feature: RTM "Vegetarian Chicken" is NOT Vegetarian

One standard of vegetarian life in Taiwan is "vegetarian chicken" (素雞; su ji), which is made from tofu skin (豆皮 or 腐皮), tied into bundles and dried. Apparently, someone thought it looks like chicken breast.

Not an NOMM favorite, at least it offers a protein-rich vegetarian option. Not at RT Mart (大潤發), however, where it is served in a non-vegetarian sauce (see photo below).

While the sign is quite clear, and so the hypermarket is doing nothing wrong, perhaps not all foreigners will know that 葷 (hun) means "meat dish". This is especially true since the character contains the semantic element 艹, which normally indicates a botanical meaning.




                                                                                

                                                                     Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011