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 poultry¹ products and price fluctuations² 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 investigation³ 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.

　　禽流感导致台湾农产品短缺

　　Local epidemic⁴ 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 culled⁵, 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 immediate⁶ effect due to bird flu outbreaks.

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

1 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

2 fluctuations   

波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He showed the price fluctuations in a statistical table. 他用统计表显示价格的波动。
• There were so many unpredictable fluctuations on the Stock Exchange. 股票市场瞬息万变。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

5 culled   

v.挑选，剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The herd must be culled. 必须有选择地杀掉部分牧畜。 来自辞典例句
• The facts were culled from various sources. 这些事实是从各方收集到的。 来自辞典例句

6 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。