Chen Jizhong, chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said that if a consensus is reached, the election will be promoted in an all-round way.

(Reuters file photo)

Chen Jizhong: If there is a consensus, we will promote it in an all-round way

[Reporter Yang Yuanting/Taipei Report] The egg price in Taiwan has repeatedly hit new highs, and some egg merchants' associations have threatened to close the market (without quoting) if they do not allow the rise.

According to industry insiders, the Egg Merchants Association can strongly dominate the price because of Taiwan's egg harvesting contract system.

Xu Zhenzhong, an honorary professor of the Department of Animal Science, National Chung Hsing University, suggested that the Council of Agriculture should guide egg farmers to set up washing and collection yards or production and marketing teams, and then combine feed farms and egg merchants with different industries to make the passage smooth and allow egg plastic boxes to be thoroughly cleaned and cleaned. Break the chain of bird flu transmission.

Chen Jizhong, chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said that if a consensus is reached, the election will be promoted in an all-round way.

H5N1 bird flu has caused severe disasters around the world. The Council of Agriculture has opened up the traditional open chicken coops since April. Chicken farmers apply for facilities to be upgraded to non-open or closed water poultry chicken coops. The subsidy is as high as 50%, but some chicken farmers are worried about investing funds. After upgrading the chicken coop, it will still be infected.

Xu Zhenzhong cited Wuhan pneumonia as an example. If every household takes precautionary measures, the risk of community transmission will be reduced. "If Taiwan's chicken coops can be fully converted into modern chicken coops, the risk of bird flu will of course be reduced."

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Uncleaned plastic egg cartons can easily spread the virus

Xu Zhenzhong said that the long-term accumulation of historical problems in the egg contract sales system, because egg farmers have to supply eggs to egg merchants all year round, so layer hens are mixed with old, middle-aged and young, which makes it difficult to control the entry and exit, adjust the flock, and the egg production rate is not good. .

To solve this problem, in addition to encouraging egg farmers to upgrade poultry houses, we can start to guide ten egg farmers to set up egg washing production and marketing teams or washing and picking yards, so that eggs can be exported to the market with disposable packaging materials after washing. Chicken farmers support each other and let the egg farm adjust its structure.

Egg farmers set up washing and sorting yards or cooperatives, which can also improve the current problem that egg boxes cannot be cleaned.

Xu Zhenzhong pointed out that when people buy eggs in traditional market channels, they often see that the eggs are stained with chicken manure, and the plastic baskets are also "weathered". , Then the plastic basket may go to B chicken farm or C chicken farm to collect eggs, and the virus will easily enter the chicken farm with the plastic basket.

If the egg farmers cooperate to set up a cleaning field, the plastic baskets will be thoroughly cleaned and then recycled, which can further cut off the chain of virus transmission.

Chen Jizhong said yesterday that the current regulations require 50 days for restocking of highly pathogenic avian influenza case farms, which prevents chicken farms from reporting on their own. He intends to adjust the number of restocking days of case farms to 35 days to increase the willingness of chicken farmers to report. Accelerate rehabilitation.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza re-cultivation plans to be reduced to 35 days

Lin Niannong, head of the animal epidemic prevention team of the Bureau of Prevention and Inspection, pointed out that the incubation period of highly pathogenic avian influenza is 14 days. The World Organization for Animal Health has adjusted the regulations. Once the virus-free activities are monitored, they can be re-raised. The domestic plan will shorten the re-raised time to 35 days.

Chen Qiulin, a professor of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Jiada University, agrees that if the restocking period is shortened, chicken farmers will be more willing to report. He also suggested that poultry farms with repeated bird flu outbreaks should be eliminated.