Epidemic prevention will continue unabated during the Lunar New Year holidays (February 18-23), Vice Premier Chang San-cheng said today while presiding over the fourth meeting of the Executive Yuan bird flu response center.
The Council of Agriculture (COA) has already formulated a bird flu prevention contingency plan for the holiday period. The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), Environmental Protection Administration and other related agencies must collaborate closely with the COA, Chang instructed.
Chang also directed the COA to supervise affected county and city governments and demand these governments to submit their Lunar New Year response plans and contact windows within these next few days in order to facilitate sustained monitoring and outbreak prevention.
The vice premier made these remarks after various ministries gave briefings on epidemic prevention.
As of today the central government has already allocated county and city governments NT$546 million (US$18 million) of compensation funds for culled animals. To help poultry farmers receive this compensation as soon as possible, the county and city governments must expedite processing of farmers' applications.
Chang expressed concerns and pointed out that as poultry farmers with animals infected by bird flu are required to disinfect and clean up their farms in accordance with the standard operation procedure in order to receive compensation, consequently there have been relatively few applications to date. Thus, to realize the government's mission of looking after farmers and to help eligible farmers to receive at least 60 percent of their compensation before the Lunar New Year, Chang directed the COA to set up a timetable to prompt county and city governments to assist with this cleaning. The COA must also extend a hand to local governments to coordinate needed resources for epidemic prevention.
To help further reduce the time needed to identify viruses, the vice premier enjoined the COA and its subsidiary Animal Health Research Institute to coordinate with the Academia Sinica to speed up development of the quick screening process that uses so-called "sugar chips." Chang expects the technology to be developed in the shortest possible time and to be used for onsite screening at farms.
As for coordinating and allocating epidemic resources, the videoconference conducted every morning will help ascertain the needs of county and city governments. The vice premier instructed the Ministry of Economic Affairs, COA, MOHW and related agencies to take preemptive measures and deploy in advance whatever resources the county and city governments might need. They should also assess when certain kinds of resources will run out and ask manufacturers in advance to start production and be ready with the supplies. In so doing, there will not be resource shortages, and no loophole will result in epidemic prevention.
Regarding price fluctuation of the domestic meat market, Chang asked relevant agencies to continue monitoring commodity prices. The Executive Yuan's Department of Consumer Protection indicated that it had invited the COA, the Fair Trade Commission, the Ministry of Justice and meat producers such as Charoen Pokphand Enterprise (Taiwan) Co. and Dachan Great Wall Group to meet on January 28 and 29 to discuss the issue. These businesses promised that the ex-factory prices of white chicken breasts and thighs will be reduced by NT$5 (US$0.16) per kilogram before the Lunar New Year and then be further lowered gradually to help bring market prices back to stability, said the department.
Pork prices have gradually stabilized after the supply of hogs was increased, the COA said. It estimated that there is sufficient pork supply to meet market demand in the run-up to the Lunar New Year holidays.
To strengthen the bird flu response mechanism, the COA will invite more doctors and experts from the fields of influenza and public health to the bird flu expert consultation task force, which is expected to offer policy consultations and help coordinate cooperation on epidemic prevention.