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Farmers Take Fright Over Bird Flu
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
11-26-2006 18:12
Farmers in North Cholla Province are scrambling to put up defenses after the health authorities found bird flu in dead chickens at a farm in Iksan, the country?s first outbreak since 2003.
Although the government urges calm over the discovery of bird flu, identified as the H5N1 strain that could be fatal to humans, there is mounting concern over public health safety and economic losses, since the area is the country?s largest poultry supplier.
Health officials and farm workers yesterday have begun culling about 236,000 chickens and chickens at six Iksan poultry farms in a bid to stave off the spread of the H5N1.
Authorities have banned the sale or transport of chickens from the area, and checkpoints have been setup to inspect trucks.
``We are planning to establish more checkpoints at traffic points and mountain roads connecting the villages with the help of the police and the military. We are also deploying more quarantine workers to the area,?? said an official from the North Cholla Provincial Government, adding that authorities plan to double the current eight checkpoints surrounding the affected area soon.
``We hope that the bird flu outbreak in Iksan is an isolated case, but we are preparing for the worst case scenario,?? said the official.
An initial three kilometer quarantine zone was setup around the outbreak site in Iksan late Saturday, surrounded by a 10 kilometer surveillance zone, which covers more than 200 poultry farms in Iksan, Sochon and Kumgang.
Farmers in the affected areas are restricted from moving poultry, eggs and other products.
The farms within the surveillance zone raise more than 50 million chickens and ducks, and the economic costs could be around 150 billion won ($160 million) to 200 billion won should the farmers be forced to kill the birds.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry confirmed that the H5N1 bird flu virus was found in some 6,500 dead chickens at a farm in Iksan.
The potentially lethal H5N1 virus, the same type that hit the country in December of 2003, is an epidemic among birds that could mutate and spread to humans in direct contact with them.
The disease has claimed 151 lives around the world, mostly in Asia, since first emerging in Hong Kong in 2003, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said. The death toll accounts for more than half the people who were treated for H5N1 infections.
Symptoms range from fever, sore throat, cough, respiratory illnesses and possible organ failure.
This February, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that four quarantine workers, involved in culling operations on poultry farms after the bird flu outbreak in 2003, tested positive for the H5N1 virus.
However, none of the four suffered flu-liked symptoms or any other illnesses believed to be linked to bird flu, the state-run agency said.
During the last outbreak in 2003, health officials were forced to kill 5.3 million chickens at 19 poultry farms in South Chungchong Province, resulting in 1.5 billion won ($1.6 million) in economic losses.
Between December 2003 and March of the following year, domestic poultry consumption was down some 60 percent from normal levels.
The government is trying to downplay concerns over health, saying that it is safe to eat poultry meat that is cooked for more than five minutes at 75 degrees Centigrade and above.
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
11-26-2006 18:12
Farmers in North Cholla Province are scrambling to put up defenses after the health authorities found bird flu in dead chickens at a farm in Iksan, the country?s first outbreak since 2003.
Although the government urges calm over the discovery of bird flu, identified as the H5N1 strain that could be fatal to humans, there is mounting concern over public health safety and economic losses, since the area is the country?s largest poultry supplier.
Health officials and farm workers yesterday have begun culling about 236,000 chickens and chickens at six Iksan poultry farms in a bid to stave off the spread of the H5N1.
Authorities have banned the sale or transport of chickens from the area, and checkpoints have been setup to inspect trucks.
``We are planning to establish more checkpoints at traffic points and mountain roads connecting the villages with the help of the police and the military. We are also deploying more quarantine workers to the area,?? said an official from the North Cholla Provincial Government, adding that authorities plan to double the current eight checkpoints surrounding the affected area soon.
``We hope that the bird flu outbreak in Iksan is an isolated case, but we are preparing for the worst case scenario,?? said the official.
An initial three kilometer quarantine zone was setup around the outbreak site in Iksan late Saturday, surrounded by a 10 kilometer surveillance zone, which covers more than 200 poultry farms in Iksan, Sochon and Kumgang.
Farmers in the affected areas are restricted from moving poultry, eggs and other products.
The farms within the surveillance zone raise more than 50 million chickens and ducks, and the economic costs could be around 150 billion won ($160 million) to 200 billion won should the farmers be forced to kill the birds.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry confirmed that the H5N1 bird flu virus was found in some 6,500 dead chickens at a farm in Iksan.
The potentially lethal H5N1 virus, the same type that hit the country in December of 2003, is an epidemic among birds that could mutate and spread to humans in direct contact with them.
The disease has claimed 151 lives around the world, mostly in Asia, since first emerging in Hong Kong in 2003, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said. The death toll accounts for more than half the people who were treated for H5N1 infections.
Symptoms range from fever, sore throat, cough, respiratory illnesses and possible organ failure.
This February, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that four quarantine workers, involved in culling operations on poultry farms after the bird flu outbreak in 2003, tested positive for the H5N1 virus.
However, none of the four suffered flu-liked symptoms or any other illnesses believed to be linked to bird flu, the state-run agency said.
During the last outbreak in 2003, health officials were forced to kill 5.3 million chickens at 19 poultry farms in South Chungchong Province, resulting in 1.5 billion won ($1.6 million) in economic losses.
Between December 2003 and March of the following year, domestic poultry consumption was down some 60 percent from normal levels.
The government is trying to downplay concerns over health, saying that it is safe to eat poultry meat that is cooked for more than five minutes at 75 degrees Centigrade and above.
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