Published: October 28, 2005
By: Bowun Jhu
Source: Taiwan Journal
The ROC government is disputing speculation that Taiwan may be responsible for the inadvertent export of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu to the United Kingdom. According to an official press release, ROC representatives in London, England, called upon members of the British press to clarify reports that the virus discovered on a South American parrot in quarantine might have been picked up from Taiwanese birds held in the same quarantine facility.
Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was quoted widely in the British press as saying that the parrot from Suriname was infected with H5N1 and, since no cases of bird flu have yet been discovered in South America, the department's working hypothesis was that it picked up the disease after being exposed to birds from Taiwan while in quarantine. While tests on the birds were being conducted, it was not clear yet whether the virus originated with them, Reynolds was reported as saying.
Concerned that the British news reports would hurt Taiwan's image in the international community, the ROC government argued that the Surinamese parrot did not contract the disease from Taiwanese birds. ROC officials have since gone on the counterattack, calling into question Britain's ability to operate a quarantine facility.
"We would like to know why the batch of birds imported to Britain from Taiwan Sept. 27 were quarantined at the same place as a batch of parrots from Suriname Sept. 16," Lin Jun-yi, Taipei's representative in London, said in a statement.
Citing information obtained from the ROC Council of Agriculture (COA), Pasuya Yao, head of the Government Information Office--the agency that publishes this newspaper--maintained that, while in the U.K. customs quarantine facility at Essex, the Taiwanese birds were not held in the same cage as the Surinamese parrot.
"Therefore, the death of the Suriname parrot has nothing to do with the Taiwanese birds," Yao deduced. He conceded, however, that they were in the same room as their South American counterpart.
Yeh Ying, deputy director of the COA's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, called British veterinary experts' speculations concerning the provenance of the disease and their implication of Taiwan "dangerous and irresponsible." "The British authorities do not have solid evidence while making a statement implicating the possible source of a bird flu virus in another country," Yeh was reported as saying by the Taipei Times.
According to export records in Taiwan, 185 birds were exported to the United Kingdom in late September. DEFRA officials put the number at 216.
COA records indicate that a bird dealer in Taichung County applied Sep. 26 for inspection and quarantine of the 185 birds. The request was approved by the COA and flown to the United Kingdom the following day. After reading the news reports about the Surinamese parrot, the COA sent a team to interview the bird dealer in Taichung. Their initial impression of the dealer's other fowl--the same type as those exported to the United Kingdom--was that they were in good health.
Taiwan discovered the H5N1 virus Oct. 14 on eight of 1,037 birds that had been smuggled in from China. The entire consignment was destroyed on board ship. According to the COA, bird flu has not spread to Taiwan and Taiwan is not an infected zone.
Consequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Beijing to adopt transparent measures in its actions against bird flu to avoid becoming a risk to other countries and their efforts to combat possible outbreaks.
The Mainland Affairs Council urged the public to be on the alert for avian influenza during visits to China. Department of Health (DOH) chief Hou Sheng-mou said Oct. 21 that the government will prohibit locals from visiting China if the bird flu virus mutates into one that can be transmitted from human to human.
After being briefed by the DOH and the COA on the preparations made to contain any possible outbreaks of the bird-flu virus, Premier Frank Hsieh said Oct. 19 that the government had come up with measures to avoid or moderate outbreaks.
"Taiwan is one of the few countries in the world that has the resources and ability to mass-produce Tamiflu," the premier added.
The National Health Research Institutes has succeeded in reproducing the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu, and two Taiwanese pharmaceutical companies, Yung Zip Chemical Ind. Co. Ltd. and Scino Pharm Taiwan, Ltd., have reportedly begun trial production of the drug. The government is currently negotiating with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG, asking it to relinquish its patent on the drug. So far, Roche has refused.
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