July 16, 2009

Taiwan's Hsinchu county government announced Wednesday (Jul 15) nine suspected cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) were found among pigs at the county's meat market.

Since being detected several days ago, all of the infected pigs have been slaughtered and tests are being carried out on their carcasses. As a further precautionary measure, the county government closed the market yesterday to thoroughly disinfect the premises.

Fan Kuo-chuan, the director of Hsinchu's Agriculture Department, said the department received news of the nine cases by the county's Animal Disease Control Centre on Monday (Jul 13), after it was found that eight of the nine pigs housed in the same pen were showing symptoms of FMD.

Foo said none of the nine pigs were raised in pig farms located in Hsinchu. He added that the market would have thrice-weekly disinfections and more stringent regulation of the entire system would be implemented, which are all part of the county government's measures to fight the disease.