TAIPEI - Late-night noise from spinning wind turbines on an outlying island of Taiwan may have killed 400 goats over the past three years by depriving them of sleep, an agricultural inspection official said on Thursday.

After the eight turbines were installed in the notoriously windy Penghu archipelago in the Taiwan Strait, a neighbouring farmer reported that his goats had started dying, Council of Agriculture inspection official Lu Ming-tseng said.

'If noise at night can keep people awake, then it could also keep the goats awake, and when the wind kicks up it makes a louder noise,' Lu said.

Agricultural authorities would make tests to rule out any other causes of death, Lu said, adding that if the giant power-generating turbines proved to be at fault, Taiwan Power had promised to compensate the farmer.