1. Officials warn against pork products from Bangladesh as ASF spreads

People bringing in pork products from Bangladesh will face fines of at least NT$200,000, after the country reported cases of African swine fever (ASF) on Thursday, Taiwan's Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) for ASF said.　The outbreak occurred in Chittagong, where 274 pigs on a farm of 414 pigs came down with the disease, and 227 of them died. It was the first report of ASF in the country, which indicates that the disease is still spreading in Asia, the CEOC said.　After the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency (APHIA) added Bangladesh to the list of countries detected with ASF within the previous three years, the fine was raised to NT$200,000.

2. Chiayi township hails new fly larvae composting system

The waste management office in Chiayi's Meishan Township said that a black soldier fly larvae-based composting system it had adopted earlier this year is now processing around 200 kilograms of food waste per day.　Under the new system, the black soldier fly larvae consume around 200 kg of food waste per day, while also generating lower emissions and producing frass, or excrement, which can be used as an efficacious natural fertilizer, the office's director Liu Jui-chin said.　According to Liu, black soldier flies have a life cycle of 28-35 days. Once they enter the pupa stage, they can be fed directly to poultry or fish, or processed for use as a high-protein feed for the aquaculture industry, he added.