Credit U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
# 8209
Less than a week after we first learned of South Korea’s unusual HPAI H5N8 outbreak (see Media Reporting Korean Poultry Outbreak Due To H5N8) at a farm in Gochang, the number of farms affected has grown to at least 8, the virus has been detected in two types of wild birds (ducks & geese), and today we learn that ducks as far as 50 km from the original infection site have be found dead due to the virus.
This is not only a major crisis for the poultry industry of South Korea, it also has ramifications for poultry holdings in Japan, which also gets overwintering bird from Siberia and China via the East Asian Flyway.
Understandably, Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries, is watching the situation closely, and has set up an extensive webpage on the Korean crisis (see For the occurrence of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Korea (H5N8 subtype))
Although we learned of Baikal Teal ducks being infected with the H5N8 virus at a reservoir near the infected farms, today From the Chosun Ilbo we get word that a second species of wild birds – Bean Geese – have been found infected as well at the same location.
Bean Geese Also Infected with Bird Flu
January 23, 2014
The bird flu virus has also been found in bean geese wintering in North Jeolla Province, following an avian flu outbreak among Baikal teals.
Tests of three dead bean geese at a reservoir in Gochang showed up the H5N8 virus, the same flu strain found in dead Baikal teals there, the agriculture ministry said Wednesday.The ministry decided to beef up quarantine efforts.
Bean geese are migratory birds that breed in Europe and Russia and typically winter in Korea. Unlike Baikal teals that rest in flocks at three to four wintering sites, bean geese stay in small family groups in about 70 locations across the country.
Meanwhile, the ministry discovered three more dead Baikal teals at a lake between Gunsan and Seocheon and started tests to find out if they are infected with the flu virus.The ministry aims to cull 410,000 chickens and ducks at 30 farms by Friday, with more than half already destroyed.
And from Airirang News this morning, we get confirmation of ducks – some fifty kilometers from the original outbreak site – infected with the virus.
More dead ducks confirmed to have avian influenza
Updated: 2014-01-23 PM 5:58:01 (KST)
These dead ducks are the latest victims of the avian influenza outbreak.
Officials have confirmed that the dead ducks found in Geumgang River in central Korea were infected with the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain of the bird flu.
This is the first case in which avian influenza has spread to other regions in the country.
The dead ducks were found about 50 kilometers north of Gochang County or the area where the bird flu outbreak started.
Officials say a group of about 70-thousand wild ducks migrated to the river in Seocheon-gun County to look for food.
The latest development is prompting local officials to step up their quarantine measures.
