Pohang City Layer Farm Confirmed with Highly Pathogenic AI... 285,000 Birds Culled

Gyeongbuk Province Recommends Excluding One Farm Within 3km Radius from Culling to Ministry of Agriculture Considering No Epidemiological Link

On the 31st, a contractor is culling chickens at a laying hen farm in Pohang, Gyeongbuk.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] Gyeongsangbuk-do announced on the 31st that the avian influenza (AI) antigen detected on the 30th at a laying hen farm in Cheongha-myeon, Buk-gu, Pohang-si, was finally confirmed as highly pathogenic AI (H5N8) according to the epidemiological investigation by the Central Accident Response Headquarters.

Accordingly, 240,000 laying hens raised at the farm and 45,000 hens within 500m radius in Zone 1 were culled.

For one farm within a 3 km radius, considering geographical characteristics and lack of epidemiological relation, a recommendation will be made to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to exclude it from preventive culling. The final decision on exclusion from culling will be made by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs through on-site inspection.

Movement restrictions have been imposed for 30 days on seven farms within the 10 km quarantine zone around the affected farm, four epidemiologically related farms, and three feed factories, while emergency surveillance and testing are being conducted. In addition, movement restrictions have been imposed on all poultry in the Pohang area for seven days.

Past occurrences of highly pathogenic AI in wild birds reached 122 cases nationwide (4 cases in Gyeongbuk) in 2016-2017, 64 cases nationwide (none in Gyeongbuk) in 2017-2018, and 127 cases nationwide (10 cases in Gyeongbuk) as of January 31 in 2020-2021.

Kim Jong-su, Director of the Livestock Distribution Bureau of Gyeongbuk Province, emphasized, "With the holiday season approaching when there is a lot of movement of people and vehicles, it is time to tighten biosecurity once again," and urged, "Livestock farmers and animal quarantine agencies must unite and do their best in livestock disease prevention."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.