Fw: [AR-News] (Taiwan) Smuggled animals from China could pose rabies risk

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HEALTH THREAT: Although Taiwan has been free of rabies for decades, animals smuggled from China's coastal provinces could infect pets and even humans By Chiu Yu-TzuSTAFF REPORTER Friday, Aug 06, 2004,Page 4 The smuggling of pet dogs and cats from China -- where the number of rabies-related deaths has increased dramatically this summer -- is a threat to Taiwan, a rabies-free country, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday. According to the council's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, the death toll from rabies in China has been increasing since 1998. Last year the disease claimed 1,980 lives in China, almost double the amount who died in 2002. So far, the epidemic has spread to 190 counties in China. In the first five months of this year alone, 27 new counties were added to the list of affected areas. Last year, rabies spread to 30 new counties. "Most affected areas are in the coastal provinces, which are potential sources of smuggled goods to Taiwan," Huang Kwo-ching (黃國é’), director of the bureau's Animal Health Inspection Department, told the Taipei Times. Rabies affects the central nervous system of unvaccinated animals that are exposed to the virus, and is invariably fatal to them.

 

full story:http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2004/08/06/2003181911

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