Four hog farms have been fined for using kitchen waste as swine feed without prior approval, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) said Saturday.
Citing the Feed Control Act, BAPHIQ said the pig farmers were each fined NT$30,000 (US$1,075) for not having obtained prior approval from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to use kitchen waste as swine feed.
The violations were related to preventing the spread of the African swine fever (ASF) virus, which is said not to harm humans but can be fatal to pigs and could devastate the country’s high-value pig farming industry.
By law, kitchen waste must be steam-heated at no less than 90 degrees Celsius for about an hour, which will kill off the African swine fever (ASF) virus if it is in the food.
There are about 6,400 pig farms in the country, 676 of which have been certified to use kitchen waste as feed for their 430,000 animals.
A total of 10 hog farms in the country were found to have violated rules pertaining to swine feed as of Saturday, according to the Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) for ASF, which announced Friday that Taiwan would impose a one-month ban on the use of kitchen waste as swine feed in September.
Hog farm operators will not be allowed to receive kitchen waste from suppliers starting Aug. 30, the CEOC said.
Taiwan has been on high alert after 71 kilograms of banned imported meat products from Vietnam were seized in New Taipei last week and were later found to contain the ASF virus.
EPA chief Chang Tzi-chin (???), who was touring a kitchen waste treatment and processing facility in Hsinchu City on Saturday, said his agency has asked local governments to prepare for the month-long ban.
They have been asked to inform kitchen waste suppliers to make all necessary preparations to ensure that the food waste sourced from restaurants, government agencies, and schools can be properly treated and stored during the September period, he said.
Chang also asked the public to cut back on food waste and to dump raw meat directly into garbage trucks for incineration rather than throwing it into a food recycling bin.
The Pingtung County Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, said a special center has already been set up to ramp up inspection of all hog farms in the county.
Pingtung is currently home to 1,507 hog farms, the most in the country.
County Magistrate Pan Meng-an (???) said that if the county was hit by ASF, the situation would be even graver than foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) disease as it is home to the largest hog farm industry in Taiwan.
The ASF virus can survive 100 days on refrigerated pork, 1,000 days on frozen pork, and up to one month in a pig pen, Pan said, and it can also spread easily through food waste and indirectly from contact with contaminated objects such as vehicles and clothing.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel