January 14, 2021

 

Poultry farmers in Asia battle outbreak of bird flu

Poultry farmers in Asia are facing the worst bird flu outbreak in the region in years, with the virus spreading rapidly in Japan, South Korea, and India, Reuters reported.

 

South Korea and Japan have culled more than 20 million chickens since November last year, while the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu has been detected in 10 states in India. India is the sixth biggest poultry producer in the world.

 

Even though bird flu is common this time of the year in Asia because of migratory wild birds, experts say new virus strains are more lethal in wild birds.

 

Mohinder Oberoi, an Indian animal health expert and former advisor to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the current bird flu outbreak in India is the worst in the country.

 

India's chicken prices dropped by a third last week to INR 58 (~US$0.79; INR 1 = US$ 0.014) per kg, below production cost as the public is concerned over the safety of chicken meat, following a COVID-19 related scare during the pandemic.

 

Officials in South Korea and Japan said there has been no market impact on poultry due to bird flu, but demand for chicken meat has increased among consumers due to COVID-19 related lockdowns.

 

A Japan animal health official in the agriculture ministry said the wild bird migration season will continue until March or April, so there is a risk the virus will spread further.

 

Filip Claes, head of the FAO's Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), said the H5N8 bird flu viruses detected in South Korea and Japan are the same as those in Europe in 2019, which evolved from viruses in 2014.

 

Bird flu outbreaks have also been detected in Europe since late-2020, but that is a different variant of the virus.

 

Holly Shelton, influenza expert at Britain's Pirbright Institute, said there is a bigger possibility for the virus to affect poultry farms from wild birds.

 

China has introduced a compulsory flu vaccination for poultry, but the virus has killed wild swans there.

 

As for Indonesia, the second biggest poultry producer in Asia, Fadjar Sumping Tjatur Rassa, director of animal health at the Agriculture Ministry, said the country is only a temporary transit point so the chance of infection in Indonesia is lower.

 

He said Indonesia has still banned live bird imports from countries affected by H5N8 bird flu, with a surveillance system set up to detect the virus at an early stage.

 

Wild birds do not migrate over Southeast Asia, so countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam have not reported any H5N8 bird flu outbreaks. However, the virus could enter those countries through the movement of people and goods.

 

- Reuters