Avian Influenza
Chickens wait to be culled at a poultry farm in Buyeo, South Chungcheong Province, Jan. 27, where a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza was reported. / Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chul
By Yoon Sung-won
SEOCHEON, South Chungcheong Province ― A big swarm of migratory ducks rose into the sky and made a variety of impromptu formations against the evening sky.
As abruptly as they started, the birds settled on a strip of wetland in the Geum River estuary.
Baikal teals, the most common migratory birds to be found here, have long been loved by Koreans.
Their mass dance often elicits exclamations from whoever observes their magnificence.
However, migratory birds have become a threat as they have been pinpointed as the alleged source of the January outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza that is now posing a serious threat to Korea’s poultry industry.
Chickens are the most vulnerable. A poultry farm in Buyeo, South Chungcheong Province, was crowded with workers after it was subjected to culling, Monday. It took just two hours to anesthetize, kill and bury over 8,000 chickens. Workers’ faces behind quarantine masks reflected exhaustion and misery.
Though municipal governments and the quarantine agency are struggling to stop the virus, it continues to spread nationwide.
A worker who volunteered for to work disinfection equipment at an inspection stop voiced concern over safety-ignorant visitors to poultry farms spreading the disease.
“No matter how hard we work, they remain in the dead zone of disinfection,” he said. “People should be more alert about this matter before blindly blaming migratory birds.”
A flock of Baikal teals fly over the Geum River estuary in Seocheon, South Chungcheong Province, Jan. 27.
Quarantine workers chase chickens toward an enclosure corner before anesthetizing them.
Chicken carcasses are left half-buried at a poultry farm. Quarantine workers claimed that these chickens didn’t die of avian influenza.
An excavator digs holes to bury metallic barrels containing culled chickens.
A quarantine worker grabs a chicken by the legs to anesthetize it.