TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan has expanded disease testing for imported breeding pigs from seven to 12 items as part of tighter border quarantine measures to protect its pig industry.

The Ministry of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said Tuesday that five diseases have been added to the list: transmissible gastroenteritis, porcine epidemic diarrhea, Senecavirus, vesicular stomatitis, and swine influenza, per CNA.

The bureau added that biosecurity measures at Guanyin Inspection Station in Taoyuan have been upgraded. Quarantine barns undergo disinfection before pigs are admitted.

Protocols for positive cases require infected pigs to be culled, the bureau explained. Co-housed negative pigs are quarantined for 14 days and retested, while local authorities monitor quarantine for three months.

Authorities said 15 batches totaling 2,002 breeding pigs were imported from Denmark, the US, France, and Canada as of November. Of those, 1,945 passed quarantine inspection, yielding a clearance rate of 97.15%.

Among the remaining cases, 13 pigs died during transport or quarantine from non-infectious causes, while 44 tested positive for various diseases and were culled. Authorities stressed that all cases were handled in accordance with established procedures.