Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Bird Killing...South Korean Style

Since another case of H5N1 avian flu was detected in South Korea in November, 10 million ducks and chickens have been slaughtered, and the government ordered poultry transportation to be halted for 48 hours (until midnight Tuesday 12/17). This is the third halt on poultry transport this season. In Korea, poultry within a 0.3 mile radius of an infected farm is slaughtered, because poultry farms are clustered densely.

This drastic response is a standard practice in South Korea, because past outbreaks of H5N1 have been highly infectious with high mortality rates. Bird culling occurs in Japan and the US as well, but there the culling is limited to infected farms.

Sources:
PROMED-SOAS mail post
http://www.oie.int/wahis_2/public/wahid.php/Reviewreport/Review?page_refer=MapFullEventReport&reportid=21771
The Chosunibo (English):http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2016/12/13/2016121300940.html


Richa Wadekar

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