Source: Richard Smith, MEATINGPLACE, 8/8/11
 

Taiwan's Council of Agriculture (COA) said it now believes the number of pigs fed ractopamine is much higher than they originally thought, Central News Agency reported.

Police announced earlier they busted a five-member ring masterminded by a man who smuggled in beta-agonist from China to produce ractopamine.

The drug was then sold to pig farms in Taichung, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan, and generated NT$50 million ($1.7 million) in profits for the gang.

Based on the profits that the ring collected, authorities estimated that the drug had been fed to 750,000 pigs from January 2010 to June 2011, five times more than the number of pigs in which the COA actually detected during random checks in the same period. Also based on the profits, COA estimates that 75,000 tons of tainted pig feed had been sold.

If every pig was fed 100 kilos of feed for a month before its slaughter, then 750,000 pigs must have been fed. COA originally detected only 147,500 pigs with ractopamine residue, Central News Agency reported.
Meanwhile, Republic of China (Taiwan) Swine Association President Lien-Chou Pan said last week that with rampant use of the drug, authorities have to punish smugglers and farms that repeatedly use the drug.

COA statistics showed that the 125 pig farms that were fined NT$30,000 ($1,038) for using the drug between January and June this year were first-time offenders. Of the 170 pig farms fined last year, only five farms were recidivists, and got slapped with the heavier fine of NT$250,000 ($8,646).

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