The number of layer chickens raised in South Korea fell 12.1 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter, affected by the impact of the outbreak of bird flu, data showed Wednesday.

The number of layer chickens reached 65.9 million as of end-June, compared with 74.9 million the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

It rose 6.1 percent from the first quarter when the number of layer chickens came to 62.1 million, the lowest in more than three years.

The on-year decline came as the number of such chickens has yet to recover though the country had reported no cases of the highly pathogenic bird flu for about two months as of June.

Quarantine authorities have culled about 30 million poultry since the outbreak of avian influenza was first reported in November last year.

Meanwhile, the number of beef cattle raised in South Korea rose 3.7 percent on-year to 3.51 million in the second quarter, the data showed.

The number of milk cows fell 1.2 percent on-year to 401,000, and that of pigs rose 0.6 percent to 11.2 million. (Yonhap)