Taiwan sets up bird flu emergency operations center
Central News Agency
2015-01-15 09:40 AM
Central News Agency
An emergency operations center was established under the Executive Yuan on Wednesday in bid to contain the avian influenza that has spread from poultry farms in southern Taiwan to central and northern areas of the country in the last couple of days.
Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said the center is headed by Vice Premier Chang San-cheng (張善政), with Minister of Council of Agriculture (COA) Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) and Minister without Portfolio Yeh Shin-cheng (葉欣誠) as its deputy heads.
In its efforts to bring the avian flu outbreak under control, the Executive Yuan is building a three-tiered defense, with the first line manned jointly by the Council of Agriculture and local governments; the second line by the Council of Agriculture, related central government agencies and local governments; and the third by the Executive Yuan, the spokesman said.
Nineteen of the 86 poultry farms tested around the island have been found to be infected by the bird flu virus, according to statistics released Wednesday by the COA's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine.
All of the infected farms are raising ducks or geese, the data showed.
(By Hsieh Chia-chen and Maubo Chang)
