One million ducks, chickens face death in bird flu outbreak

NEARLY a million chickens and ducks will be slaughtered across South Korea to combat a highly contagious strain of bird flu that has spread across the country and could also infect humans, the government said yesterday.

Avian influenza, which in rare cases can be deadly to humans, has caused poultry sales to tumble as authorities confirm outbreaks at farm after farm across the country.

“To contain the spread of the diseases, we have decided to conduct intensified disinfection measures,” a statement from the agriculture ministry said.

Since authorities last Monday confirmed the first bird flu among chickens at a farm 80 km southeast of Seoul, cases have since been discovered at eight more poultry farms. Six other farms are being tested for suspected infections.

Faced with the rapid increase in cases, agriculture authorities have raised slaughter targets to about 950,000 birds among the 100 million chickens and eight million ducks in the poultry sector.

So far, one third of the target poultry stocks have been destroyed by gassing, and later buried. Prime Minister Goh Kun said the government should err on the side of caution and cull as many birds as necessary.

He cited the example of the Netherlands, which slaughtered around 26 million birds - or more than half the poultry population - after an outbreak of avian influenza was discovered in February.

“Working with the resolve that we may have to destroy one third of the total poultry population is one way to contain the disease,” Goh told agriculture ministry officials.

South Korean consumers have shunned poultry and the country’s modest exports to Japan, Hong Kong and China have virtually stopped, prompting authorities to support prices. The farm ministry stepped in to buy 2.5 million chickens after producer prices plunged by 30%.

The ministry said the disease had spread over the past week through the transport, before the disease was diagnosed, of chickens and ducks from infected breeding centres.

Authorities are now monitoring all of the country’s duck hatcheries and slaughter houses, intensifying disinfection measures and restricting the transport of birds. They are also investigating migratory birds as a possible cause of the fast spread of the disease.

Icy winter weather has hampered efforts by troops, firefighters and police to contain the disease, spread by a virus that is more active in lower temperatures.

Korean authorities have asked US experts for help in determining whether the latest virus is genetically similar to the H5N1 variant of avian influenza that killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997 and 1998.