South Korea's consumer prices of poultry goods continued to gather ground as the country destroyed more birds in a preventive measure against the highly pathogenic bird flu, data showed Sunday, with the caseload reaching 87.

The average price of eggs shot up 43.8 percent over the past week from the previous year, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Those of chicken and duck meat also increased 16.6 percent and 26.2 percent, respectively.

South Korea has so far culled 26 million poultry under its policy of destroying all birds within a 3-kilometer radius of infected farms.

The latest case of the deadly H5N8 strain of avian influenza came from Goesan, North Chungcheong Province, the previous day. The infected farm was raising 15,000 ducks.

Cases from wild birds also continued to pile up, reaching 163 as of Sunday.

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 February 2017. (Yonhap)