Cattle farmers concerned over Kinmen beef `threat'

TAIWAN - From disease imported from China to competition, cattle farmers fear that importing cattle from Kinmen would have a serious impact on the industry.

8 February 2007

1 minute read

Asia

The debate over whether live cattle should be imported from the outlying island of Kinmen is heating up, with one side raising the specter of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and the other saying that fears are being raised by cattle farmers who fear the competition.

No representatives from Kinmen were invited to a press conference held by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin yesterday.

Instead, Taiwanese cattle farmers and animal rights activists protested the proposed move to import 100 live cattle from Kinmen as a test case.

Imports of cattle, pigs and goats were banned after an outbreak of the highly contagious and sometime deadly (for livestock) FMD outbreak in Kinmen in 1999.

The restrictions were relaxed in 2005 to allow animal parts to be exported to Taiwan, but the ban remains for live animals.

Source: Taipei Times