More than 8 million birds culled in fight against avian flu

A quarantine officer sprays antibiotics into chicken cages at a traditional market in Gwangju, Monday. / Yonhap

By Park Si-soo

More than 8 million chickens and ducks have been culled in a nationwide quarantine effort to contain the highly infectious avian influenza (AI) that has devastated hundreds of poultry farms in South Korea over the past 26 days.

The government is doing everything it can to stop the spread of the H5N6 avian influenza virus, but the virus is still elusive because of cold weather that significantly reduces the effectiveness of AI vaccines, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Experts said the accumulated number of culled poultry will reach 10 million in days to come, making the latest outbreak the worst in Korea since 2014. Back then, the country wrestled with the virus for 195 days, during which 13.96 million chickens or ducks were culled.

“We are the making utmost effort to contain the spread of the virus,” a ministry official said.

The official said not a day had passed without a report of a new outbreak. He said Jeju Island was the only region unaffected.

The ministry has banned the movement of poultry in affected areas to prevent the virus’s further spread, and may extend the ban till Dec. 23.