Another Bird Flu Outbreak Reported

A virulent strain of Avian Influenza (AI), transmissible to humans, has been found in Gimje, North Jeolla Province. It is the third case of a high pathogen bird flu outbreak following the one in Iksan on November 19 and 27.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry confirmed the news on December 11 after the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service investigated the cause of a massive quail kill reported by a farmer the day before and found the birds had caught highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The farm had 290,000 quails and is located 18km away to the north from Hamyeol-eup, Iksan City, where the first case of bird flu was reported, surpassing the bird flu ‘warning zone’ 10km radius.

The farm owner reported the massive death of 3,700 quails over four days to the nearby quarantine center on December 10. Lee Sang-gil, Director General of the Agriculture Ministry`s Livestock Bureau, said that, “More investigation is necessary, though reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) has shown no signs of direct correlation between the third and the rest of the cases.” The ministry and North Jeolla Province are expected to cull poultry within a range of 500m radius from the farm and control the transportation of poultry and eggs within a 10km radius.

Within a 500m radius of this farm, there are supposedly around 365,000 birds, including 290,000 quails and 75.000 chickens. The ministry is not likely to upgrade bird flu alert level from the current ‘concern’ to ‘serious’ soon, however, as the current strain of AI has not yet escalated into a nationwide outbreak. The AI alert system is a four-level scale: ‘attention’,’ precaution’, ‘concern’, and ‘serious.’

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