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This winter, highly pathogenic avian influenza is spreading rapidly. Following Chungbuk and Jeonnam, today (5th), a highly pathogenic AI was also confirmed at a laying hen farm in Chungnam, but this is the first time it has come from a laying hen farm.
Reporter Lee Kyung-won reports.
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is a laying hen farm in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, where highly pathogenic avian influenza and AI occurred.
100,000 chickens and ducks raised on the farm were slaughtered as a preventative measure, and quarantine measures were installed to control movement at every 3km radius and 10km road around the farm.
A nearby farm is also in emergency.
The quarantine authorities also plan to kill 226,000 poultry from six other farms within a 500-meter radius of the farm by tomorrow.
Since this fall, there have been eight AI outbreaks in quail and meat duck farms, but this is the first case in a laying hen farm.
[Chungcheongnam-do employee: This is the area where the highly pathogenic AI appeared on October 26th. (Nearby) Migratory birds in the river were highly pathogenic.] A
suspected case of highly pathogenic AI occurred at Yeongam Laying Farm in Jeollanam-do.
The recently spreading AI virus is a highly pathogenic H5N1 type that is prevalent in Europe now, different from last year.
In Korea, it was confirmed again for the first time in 10 years since 2011.
In the second half of this year, there were 4 cases in North Chungcheong and 4 cases in South Jeolla Province.
As AI spreads to laying hen farms, egg prices could be impacted again as they did earlier this year.
From the end of last year to this summer, 16.75 million poultry slaughtered with AI, or 23% of the total, averaged 39.82 million eggs per day in the first quarter, a decrease of 11.2% from the same period last year.
Quarantine authorities urged the quarantine authorities to immediately report any abnormalities such as mortality or decreased spawning rates.
(Video coverage: Seong Nak-joong TJB, video editing: So Ji-hye)