S. Korea confirms highly pathogenic bird flu at duck farm

The Agriculture Ministry confirmed an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N6 bird flu at a duck farm in Yeongam, South Jeolla Province, Monday.

This is the fourth confirmation of highly pathogenic bird flu this season.

The government on Monday culled some 76,000 ducks at five farms located within a 3 kilometer radius of the original farm where the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was detected. Since Monday midnight, a transportation ban was issued on all livestock industry persons across Daejeon, Gwangju, Sejong, South Chungcheong and South and North Jeolla provinces.

Authorities vaccinate duck farms (Yonhap)

Yeongam is about 380 kilometers south of Seoul. The rural region is home to one of Korea’s biggest duck farms. Together with the adjacent Naju, the area accounted for 52 percent of the entire domestic duck produce in the third quarter of this year. 

The farm where the virus was detected is one that supplies breeding ducks to other farms. About 10 farms were found to have taken ducklings from this farm in recent month. The trucks that transported the baby ducks made visits to some 30 other farms over the month, raising the possibility of secondary infection.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)