Government to decide Wednesday whether to lift pig restrictions

Taipei, Nov. 4 (CNA) Taiwan's government will decide whether to lift the nationwide ban on the transportation and slaughtering of pigs initiated to counter an African swine fever outbreak, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said Tuesday.

Cho was responding to a question on whether the ban, set for 15 days from noon on Oct. 22, could be lifted on Friday as scheduled. The ban came one day after pig carcasses at a farm in Wuqi District in Taichung tested positive for the disease.

The African Swine Fever Forward Command Center will make a decision Wednesday at noon, Cho said.

Noting that a probe by a central epidemic investigation team tied the infections to the improper handling of kitchen waste, Cho said the ban on feeding pigs with swill will remain in place until several preconditions put forward by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) are met.

These include a joint inspection by the Ministry of Environment and the MOA as well as safety checks on the cooking equipment and number of pigs at all 434 pig farms currently engaged in kitchen waste feeding, according to the MOA.

Also, cooking equipment must be subject to real-time monitoring, rather than simply allowing farm operators to upload data, as was done in the past, and regulations on feeding swill to pigs and kitchen waste management need to be updated.

If the transportation and slaughtering ban is lifted, the Executive Yuan will focus on measures to stabilize the primary production chain, pork prices, and the supply of meat, Cho said.

Efforts to meet these goals will be reviewed weekly to ensure that the situation fully returns to normal within the next month, he said.