Page 93 - 2018 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

Annual Report 2018 Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan the “Research Center for Control and Prevention of Avian Influenza,” utilizing new technologies to upgrade early warning and response mechanisms, and providing scientific evidence to support Taiwan’s disease prevention strategies. Taiwan has already notified the World Organization for Animal Health that outbreaks of H5N3, H5N8, and H5N6 subtypes of HPAI have ended, and that Taiwan is actively working to eradicate the sole remaining subtype (H5N2) in the country. (2) Strengthening prevention of rabies In 2018 the COA conducted 1,219 tests on dogs, cats, and wild animals, with 110 cases of ferret-badgers being conrmed as being infected with rabies. These conrmed cases were detected in 84 townships in nine cities or counties. We continued to promote rabies vaccinations for dogs and cats to establish an immune barrier. To reach our goal of a 70% vaccination rate, the overall booster amount reached 739,712 doses in 2018. People who failed to get their pets vaccinated as required by law were ned in 88 cases. In order to reduce the risk that rabies could spread to dogs and cats, the COA conducted evaluations of rabies prevention work in cities and counties, strengthened management of dogs and cats at the source, strengthened health education and guidance, stored up vaccines, did personnel training, and did R&D work on an oral rabies vaccine for ferret-badgers, in order to reach our goal of controlling rabies. A poster on rabies prevention. 91