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Officials covered up
outbreak of bird flu: activists
By Lee I-chia and Chris Wang / Staff Reporters
The Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) yesterday said it suspected
that the Council of Agriculture had concealed cases of avian influenza for more
than two years and had lied to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in
its reports.
The group said former premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and former Council of Agriculture
minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) should be held responsible for the cover up.
EAST disclosed two documents from 2010, dated March 1 and March 8, that the
council’s Animal Health Research Institute sent to the Bureau of Animal and
Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine. The documents showed that two technical
group meetings held on Feb. 25 and March 5 that year had already received H5N2
Intravenous Pathogenicity Index [IVPI] lab results, which showed readings above
1.2 and 2.41, indicators that the strains were highly pathogenic.
Readings greater than 1.2 in an IVPI test on a six-week-old chicken indicate a
highly pathogenic strain.
However, the council’s four reports to the OIE that year all said that the cases
were “of a low pathogenic level,” EAST executive director Wu Hung (朱增宏) said,
adding that the council should explain why it added “clinical high death rate”
as a criteria for determining a virus strain’s severity.
The association received a report from an undisclosed source in early 2010 that
said an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza had occurred and that
the council was trying to cover up the fact, Wu Hung said, adding that to
confirm the report, the association had asked the bureau to provide any related
documents, but the bureau refused, saying they were “official confidential
information.”
Wu Hung said the association had filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court
against the bureau for violating the Freedom of Government Information Act
(政府資訊公開法), but it was rejected. It is now in the process of being appealed at
the Taipei High Administrative Court.
Chen Yen-chun (陳彥君), a lawyer from Primordial Law Firm, which was commissioned
by the association to pursue the case, said the bureau must provide other legal
sources to explain why the documents were classified “confidential, official use
only.”
Furthermore, the bureau’s response — “check foreign official Web sites on the
Internet by yourself” — was not an adequate government attitude, because it is
the government’s duty to answer public inquiries, Chen Yen-chun said.
EAST director Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏) said when facing outbreaks of bird flu in
Southeast Asia in March 2006, the National Security Council had formulated a
policy prohibiting all slaughter of poultry in traditional markets and funds
were made available for several government agencies to enforce the policy.
“However, right before the official enactment day on April 1, 2010, the council
released a proclamation saying that because the conditions of avian influenza
had stabilized and in consideration of the public’s eating habits, selling and
slaughtering live poultry in traditional markets would be allowed,” Chen Yu-min
said.
The outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza was occurring in Taiwan at
that time, so how could the council make such a risky decision, Chen Yu-min
asked.
The group said the council had concealed the truth from the OIE, the media and
the public for two years, not just for 70 days since the outbreak in Changhua
County in December last year.
They urged the Control Yuan to find out who should be held responsible for the
decision to cover-up the outbreak.
At a separate setting, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also blamed Chen
Wu-hsiung for the controversy.
Under Chen Wu-hsiung’s leadership, the council betrayed its professionalism and
filed a false report on the outbreak, DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said.
The council’s report was first submitted to the OIE on Jan. 10, four days before
the presidential election, the OIE Web site shows.
In a follow-up report on Saturday, the council still listed the outbreak as
having a low pathogenic level.
The government’s handling of the case is a major mistake, Lin said, adding that
the latest outbreak of H5N2 influenza could be blamed on the inaction and
incompetence of the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Facing a similar crisis when it was in office, the DPP -administration adopted a
standard operating procedure in handling avian influenza outbreaks — culling
poultry, sterilizing poultry farms, taking control of contaminated farms and
making public announcements on the spread of the disease, Lin said.
“There was no severe outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza during the
DPP administration, and it was not because we were lucky, but because we always
took the matter seriously,” he said.
At a press conference yesterday, Chen Wu-hsiung denied any wrongdoing during his
term and said: “I have nothing to apologize for.”
The former minister, who stepped down last month said the report by Kevin H. J.
Lee (李惠仁), a freelance journalist who spent more than six years investigating
avian influenza in Taiwan and first reported on its spread in his documentary
titled A Secret That Can’t Be Exposed (不能戳的秘密), only presented “partial facts”
on the matter.
He said he would be willing to discuss the matter with Lee or anyone in an open
debate.
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