TAIPEI - TAIWAN on Wednesday denied newspaper allegations that it had covered up a bird flu outbreak ahead of the launch of direct daily flights and shipping links with China.
A local newspaper claimed on Wednesday more than 10,000 chickens were slaughtered last month after the less virulent H5N2 strain was discovered on a chicken farm in southern Tainan county and said that another poultry farm was shut down.
It alleged the outbreak was not made public as the timing was sensitive ahead of the launch of direct transport links with China.
Bird flu may also have killed chickens in Taiwan's Tainan county in November, the Liberty Times newspaper said on Wednesday, accusing the government of a cover-up.
'According to our understanding, the Council of Agriculture was afraid of impacting links with China and tried to hide the case,' the paper said.
Agricultural officials said the news report was false and would hurt the county's poultry industry.
'There is not a bird flu outbreak in Tainan county... the report is not correct,' Mr Hu Hsing-hua, vice chairman of the Council of Agriculture, told reporters.
'Presently, tests are still being done, and the inspection and quarantine bureau of our council will keep checking, to understand the whole matter,' a statement released on Wednesday said.
'Because the results aren't final, it was inappropriate to make a casual announcement, but it's not a matter of hiding outbreak information,' said the statement, which was issued following a flurry of media queries.
Mr Hu, however, admitted quarantine experts had been monitoring a suspected H5N2 outbreak on a chicken farm in Kaohsiung county, 60 kilometres south of Tainan.
Taiwan is investigating a suspected bird flu case following mass poultry deaths, while rejecting local press reports of a possible second case.
Inspectors are looking at reasons for the sudden death of poultry on Oct 21 in Luzhu in Kaohsiung county, the Council of Agriculture said on a statement.
The H5N2 strain of avian influenza, which is less serious than H5N1 that has spread to humans, is a suspected case.
'The examination process has yet completed... this has nothing to do with the 'three direct links' with the mainland,' Mr Hu said, referring to the direct commerce, transport and postal services with China which were cut off since 1949 at the end of a civil war.
Taiwan and China, which claims the self-ruled island as its own, launched new direct flights, opened new cargo routes and began direct postal links on Monday following negotiations in November after six decades of political tension.
Only one documented case of H5N2 is known to have jumped to humans.
Taiwan has not had any recorded cases of the deadly H5N1 strain, although in 2005 authorities here said eight pet birds smuggled into the country from China had tested positive for the strain and been destroyed.
Bird flu is most common during cool, damp winters. So far this winter, it has killed two people, in Indonesia and Egypt, and made two people ill in Indonesia and Cambodia.
Eastern China's Jiangsu province has culled 377,000 poultry after laying hens tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Chinese agriculture ministry said on Tuesday in the first reported case since the early summer. -- AFP, REUTERS
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