禽流感导致台湾农产品短缺

Experts in Taiwan have expressed concern that the spread of bird flu may cause a shortage of poultry products and price fluctuations in the market.

Taiwan Poultry Association Secretary General Wang Chien-pei says the spread of the virus could make it hard to meet demand for poultry ahead of the approaching Spring Festival.

"We usually need two million poultry to meet customers' demand for Spring Festival. But our investigation shows that there are only 1.5 million now."

The supply shortage may cause price hikes, but concerns over the risk of bird-flu infection may drag the price down again.

Local epidemic control authorities recently tested poultry from 24 facilities across Taiwan after suspected bird flu was reported.

They have detected H5N8 bird flu virus in Chiayi County and H5N2 virus in Pingtung County.

So far 120 thousand chickens in Pingtung have been culled, but those chickens represent only a small number of poultry in Taiwan.

In the meantime, Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety has banned all egg imports from Taiwan with immediate effect due to bird flu outbreaks.

About 6 million poultry eggs were imported into Hong Kong from Taiwan between January and November last year.