August 3, 2009
Taiwan to continue FMD vaccinations on hogs
Taiwan on Aug. 1 began vaccinating every hog aged between 12 to 14 weeks vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), said the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ).
BAPHIQ Deputy Director General Huang Kuo-ching said the vaccination aims to prevent the disease virus from spreading after seven outbreaks have been reported from hog farms in the Yunlin, Changhua, Chiayi, Pingtung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu areas since February.
The erratic cases indicated that the virus had not been completely eliminated following eradication efforts in the aftermath of an outbreak in 1997, Huang said.
The resumption of vaccination means that the day for Taiwan to be listed as a fully FMD-free country will not come in the short run, he added. Taiwan has been working to become a fully FMD-free country after it was recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) as an "FMD-free country with vaccination" thanks to its efforts to eliminate the disease since the 1997 outbreak.
Huang stated that 90 percent of the hogs around the country have never been given anti-FMD shots since 2005, when the vaccination was fully stopped in efforts to seek Taiwan's FMD-free status.
As a result, 78 percent of Taiwan's existing hogs were discovered to have no antibodies against the FMD virus, Huang said, noting that this is believed to be the major reason behind the recent outbreaks.
Tests, moreover, have shown that resistance against FMD in the pig populations has dropped, according to Huang.
These signs showed a spread of the disease virus in domestic hog farms, Huang said.
Meanwhile, the animal inspection bureau has also found that only three of seven FMD cases this year were reported to the authorities by local breeders or veterinarians voluntarily, while the other cases were only exposed during the bureau's surprise inspections.
The reluctance of hog breeders to immediately report outbreaks inhibits the bureau in its efforts to eliminate the source of infections as soon as outbreaks occur, Huang said.
