February 13, 2017

South Korea's poultry industry faces worst bird flu since 2014
 

As the early months of 2017 witness poultry sectors in certain parts of the worldbeleaguered by diseases, South Korea is reportedly facing its worst avian influenza outbreak since 2014, local officials said.

Following the first case - a chicken farm in Haenam hit by the H5N6 bird flu - in November last year, the country has culled over 33 million poultry, with resources to deal with the situation being severely drained, according to observers. The number of poultry killed has more than double the record 13.96 million in a 2014 outbreak, Yonhap news agency reported.

The outbreak initially appeared to have abated after crippling about 340 poultry farms nationwide, only to reemerge this month at a poultry farm in Gimje, North Jeolla province. This compounds a bleak development for South Korea already coping with an ongoing foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak first reported on February 5 in North Chungcheong province`s Boeun. More FMD cases were later reported at farms in Jeongeup (North Jeolla province) and Yeoncheon, near the border with North Korea.

Since February 10, 1,093 cattle from 14 farms have been slaughtered, the country's Agriculture Ministry stated. The ministry has begun vaccinating some 2.83 million cattle following evidences revealing that some animals have not properly developed antibodies.

- Zee News