No persons affected by avian flu in Taiwan: DOH

According to the report carried by the Liberty Times, a large number of chickens raised in a poultry farm in Tainan were confirmed by a government laboratory to have died from the H5N2 bird flu virus last month.

But the Council of Agriculture (COA) tried to conceal the information so as not to mar the launch of direct daily air and regular shipping and postal links on Dec. 15, the report alleged.

Legislator Chen voiced grave concern that Taiwan will be exposed to great risk if the COA fails to fulfill its duty now that direct transport links across the Taiwan Strait have been established.

As bird flu has also broken out in Hong Kong and China recently, the COA must quickly detect the origin of the H5N2 virus to help protect public health, Chen said.

Answering questions at the Legislative Yuan, COA chief Chen Wu-hsiung again denied that large numbers of chickens have died in Tainan County in recent months.

He also rejected allegations that the COA has attempted to hide information about a possible bird flu epidemic in southern Taiwan, stressing that the council will make public the results of its investigation once it is complete.

In response to media reports that bird flu had broken out in Tainan and Kaohsiung counties, COA officials said that a joint investigation by the COA and the Tainan County authorities has ruled out any cases in Tainan.

However, the officials admitted that at Luchu township in neighboring Kaohsiung County, some 400 chickens at a poultry farm had died in late October and that some others were found in November.

They noted that only around 3 percent of the chickens had died, a fatality rate that is within the normal range for chicken farms and far lower than the average mortality rate caused by the H5N2 virus.

Despite the fact that the chickens did not develop signs of respiratory disease -- a key symptom of an H5N2 epidemic -- animal health officials decided to cull all the remaining 18,000 chickens in an effort to prevent any adverse consequences.

The COA officials denied that they had tried to keep the situation secret, saying that a panel of 23 experts had still not completed an investigation into the deaths and that the delay had nothing to do with the opening of direct cross-Taiwan Strait transport links.

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