Ducks, Geese Culled in Central Taiwan Due to Avian Flu Outbreak
TAIWAN - Two duck farms in central Taiwan's Yunlin county have been confirmed as having been infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype H5N2 and will be culled, the Bureau of Animal Health Inspection and Quarantine said.
18 September 2015
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By: The two farms have 7,200 and 1,700 ducks, respectively.
Yunlin animal disease control officials will follow a set procedure to carry out the cull and monitor the farmers in their cleaning and disinfection work to mitigate the risk of the virus spreading, reports WantChinaTimes.
The bureau also said that one goose farm in Tainan and one in Chiayi county have reported unusually high death rates among their poultry and suspect avian flu infection.
The bureau said that the Tainan farm, which has about 1,800 geese, reported more than 200 deaths, while the Chiayi farm, which raises 1,200 geese, reported that half of them have died.
The operators of the two farms have reported the matter to animal disease control officials and the bureau has immediately imposed movement controls and collected specimens for testing.
Initial results were to be published the following day, the bureau said.
The Chiayi animal disease control center said that given the high death rates, it is suspected that the highly pathogenic avian flu strain is involved.
If avian flu is confirmed, all the birds will be culled and 13 poultry farms within a one-kilometer radius of the farm will have specimens taken for testing.
A duck farm in Chiayi was found to have been infected with H5N8 virus in late August, and more than 6,000 ducks there have been culled.
