Five years later, a severe bout of foot-and-mouth disease hit hog farms across the country, and Lin was tabbed to head the newly established Animal and Plant Quarantine Bureau, a division of the Council of Agriculture.
[6] Soon after taking office, Lee established a task force dedicated to ecological conservation in response to a flock of black-faced spoonbills contracting botulism while at the Chiku bird sanctuary.
[12] Tropical Storm Mindulle hit Taiwan in July and caused $5.75 billion in damage, after which Lee pledged to enforce regulations on farming in mountainous areas.
[17] Duck eggs from central Taiwan were found to be contaminated by dioxins later that year, and the COA worked with the Environmental Protection Administration to test the air, soil, and quality of feed used by farmers.
[19] Since leaving office, Lee has criticized the COA for its slow reaction to a 2008 H5N2 outbreak,[20] as well as accused the Forestry Bureau of arranging work for businesses through questionable build-operate-transfer deals.