The Council of Agriculture (COA) plans to end the vaccination of pigs against classical swine fever (CSF) in January 2023 in a bid to help Taiwan increase its fresh pork exports, the COA said Wednesday.
Despite being declared free of foot and mouth disease in 2020, Taiwan has been unable to export its fresh pork products to markets such as Japan, which only import from countries officially recognized as CSF-free.
As a step toward gaining this status, the COA is conducting a test project on 450 farms in which newborn pigs are not given the CSF vaccine, COA Deputy Minister Huang Chin-cheng (???) told CNA Wednesday.
If the plan is successful, farms nationwide will stop vaccinating all newborn pigs next January, which — given the pigs’ age of six months at the time of slaughter — means that by next July, no market pigs in Taiwan will have been vaccinated against CSF, Huang said.
Huang did not, however, specify a timeline for when Taiwan might gain recognition from the World Organization for Animal Health as CSF-free, a status that no other country in Asia currently has.
But even without official recognition, halting CSF vaccination will demonstrate the good conditions on Taiwan pig farms, and help local pork products return to the international market, said COA official Chiang Wen-chuan (???).
According to Chiang, the COA is hoping to expand pork sales to wealthier countries, as well as increase exports of specific pork parts to markets where they are consumed.
The move will also help lower the cost of raising pigs in Taiwan, as the CSF vaccine now costs over NT$10 (US$0.34) per dose, and must be administered once in the six-month life of each market pig and twice per year on sows used for breeding, Chiang said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel