#12,826
When a country goes 90 days without a fresh outbreak of HPAI H5 or H7, they can technically declare themselves `bird flu free', although history has shown this designation often to be fleeting.
Last Friday, in South Korea: H5 Avian Flu Detected In Environmental Samples, we saw reports of avian H5 detected in wild bird feces in Seosan, 151 kilometers south of Seoul. But since it has been 3 months since HPAI has been reported in poultry, today's headline in Yonhap News reads: S. Korea free from highly pathogenic AI: gov't.
This report does note:
"Although we have recovered the AI clean status, we have been conducting special quarantine measures since Oct. 1 under the premise that highly pathogenic AI could break out at any time," the ministry said in a release.Over the weekend South Korea's MAFRA (Ministry of Agriculture) reported on additional detections of environmental avian H5 virus from wild bird feces. The (translated) statement reads:
Detection of H5 type AI antigen in Gangseo-gu, Gangseo-gu, Seongdong-gu (Jungrangcheon), Gyeonggi Hwaseong (Hwanggujipcheon), Anseong (Anseongcheon)
Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Food (Minister: gimyoungrok) is "AI constantly checking surveillance plans", Gangseo-gu, Seoul (Gangseo District), gu (Jungnangcheon) and the game Martian material hwangguji cloth, '17.
10.10 one wild bird feces collected in Anseong, depending on the material anseongcheon the (six) Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock quarantine office inspection results, H5 type AI antigen detection for sure today announced that Sun 10.13.
Accordingly,
① enhanced AI biosecurity for such radius 10km area "wild tide flow forecasting area" setting,
② radial movement control for the 10km regional poultry and breeding birds and disinfection carried out,
③ poultry farms and migratory doraeji, Small Stream,
④ appropriate municipalities are mobilized defenses vehicles, including broadband bangjegi shot was taken preventative measures, such as disinfection carried out every day.
※ highly pathogenic determining whether it is going to take 1-3 days
We've not seen any official report on the pathogenicity or subtype of any of these wild bird samples, although based on the past few years, H5N8 or H5N6 are the likely suspects.
In recent years South Korea has become a harbinger of sorts, often reporting their first bird flu outbreaks (or detections in wild birds or the environment) several weeks before other countries along the East Asian Flyway.Typically, we start seeing avian flu reports begin to pick up along the East Asian Migratory Flyway in late October or sometime in November. Although the timing is right, we'll have to wait to see if this pattern repeats itself again this winter.
Stay tuned.
