Taichung: Premier Cho Jung-tai on Wednesday announced a series of new measures, including enhanced border inspections and the release of frozen pork onto the market, in response to a suspected outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in Taichung. Speaking at a press conference, Cho said the government would immediately begin an outbreak investigation to determine how the pigs became infected with ASF.

According to Focus Taiwan, Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) reported that pigs on a farm in Wuqi District, Taichung, tested positive for the nucleic acid of the ASF virus on Tuesday. The MOA stated that further tests are needed to formally confirm an ASF outbreak, which are being conducted in accordance with World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) guidelines.

In response to the situation, the government will release supplies of frozen pork to stabilize market supply amid a five-day ban on slaughtering pigs, with priority given to use in school lunches, Cho said. An on-site response unit will be set up in Taichung, and inspections at points along the domestic pork supply chain will be increased. Additionally, pork-related border checks and anti-smuggling efforts will be enhanced.

The MOA revealed that testing was undertaken after 117 of the roughly 300 pigs on the farm died between Oct. 10-20. The pigs were being fed on food waste, a practice that the government banned on Wednesday. Early Wednesday, 195 pigs on the farm were culled, the carcasses buried, and the premises disinfected to eliminate any trace of the virus.

In Yunlin County, Taiwan’s top pork-producing municipality, County Magistrate Chang Li-shan noted that Yunlin banned the use of food waste as pig feed in 2018, due to the risk of it containing contaminated meat from overseas. She urged the central government to ban the practice permanently.

Taiwan, which became the only country in Asia to be declared free of African swine fever, classical swine fever, and foot-and-mouth disease by the WOAH in May, faces a critical challenge with this suspected outbreak. With over 1,200 pig farms, Yunlin is home to 1.51 million of the roughly 5 million pigs raised in Taiwan each year, followed by Pingtung with around 1 million.