S. Korea culls 25.4 mln poultry amid bird flu outbreak

All News 10:27 February 04, 2021

By Kang Yoon-seung

SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's agricultural ministry said Thursday it has completed culling 25.4 million poultry amid the outbreak of avian influenza among local farms, with the confirmed caseload reaching 85.

The latest case of the malign H5N8 strain of bird flu was reported from a duck farm in Chungju, about 150 kilometers south of Seoul, the previous day, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said.

Since the country reported the first highly pathogenic bird flu case traced to poultry farms in late November, it has been destroying all birds within a 3-kilometer radius of infected areas.

An egg farm in the southeastern port city of Pohang is closed in this photo taken on Jan. 31, 2021, as officials started culling chickens. (Yonhap)

The aggressive move has led to a sharp increase in the consumer price of poultry goods, with that of eggs jumping 43.3 percent on-year over the past week.

The price of chicken and duck meat also shot up 16.1 percent and 36.2 percent, respectively.

Of the confirmed cases from farms, Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul accounted for 29, followed by the provinces of North and South Jeolla with 15 infections each. South Chungcheong Province accounted for nine.

Cases from wild birds continued to pile up as well, reaching 130.

South Korea identified a whopping 340 cases of the H5N8 strain of avian influenza traced to poultry farms during the previous wave, which ran from October 2016 to January 2017.