Yang Jie, chairman of the Pig Raising Association of the Republic of China, said that epidemic prevention is a serious national security issue, and meat from African swine fever-affected areas must not be relaxed, otherwise it will affect my country's pig industry.

(file photo)

[Reporter Yang Yuanting/Taipei Report] Taiwan has successfully defended against African swine fever. In recent years, foot-and-mouth disease and traditional swine fever have been pulled out one after another. They rely on strict border protection strategies, including strictly prohibiting passengers from bringing in meat products from African swine fever-affected areas and not buying them. Meat products from affected areas, but the Kuomintang proposed to relax the restrictions on carrying processed meat products from affected areas. Chen Jizhong, chairman of the Agricultural Committee, said today (10th) that this cannot be relaxed and there is no need to discuss it; The news was shocking, saying that epidemic prevention is a serious national security issue and must not be relaxed, otherwise it will affect my country's pig industry.

my country currently stipulates that a fine of 200,000 yuan to 1 million yuan will be imposed for carrying pork or pork products from areas affected by African swine fever. It is unreasonable that the penalties for fresh pork and processed meat are consistent and unreasonable. It is believed that the Bureau of Inspection and Quarantine should adjust the penalty standards, which is like relaxing the regulations for meat products from African swine fever-affected areas.

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As for the Kuomintang’s request to relax the regulations on the import of meat from affected areas to Taiwan, Chen Jizhong said that there is no need to discuss this at all, and that Taiwan can currently provide enough local chickens, broilers, eggs, pork, etc., all because of the cooperation between farmers and the public across the country As a result, and according to the regulations of WOAH (World Organization for Animal Health), pork and pork products in African swine fever-affected areas are not allowed to be traded. He further pointed out that African swine fever is an acute and vicious infectious disease of pigs, with a mortality rate of 100%. And the virus will exist in refrigerated pork for 100 days, frozen pork for 1,000 days, and processed products such as ham for 140 days.

Yang Jie said that epidemic prevention is a serious national security issue. He said that the African swine fever epidemic prevention regulations must not be relaxed, otherwise it will endanger the domestic pig industry with an output value of 200 billion yuan. He also stated that he will send a letter to express his strong opposition to the relaxation.

You Yulan, a non-regional legislator of the Kuomintang, proposed to relax the regulations on processing pork products in areas affected by African swine fever, which caused an uproar among pig farmers.

(Reposted from Legislator Zheng Yunpeng's Facebook page)