South Korea’s poultry meat output held back by avian flu

FAS attributes the lower number of parent stock to the previous destruction of 4.7 million hatching eggs due to HPAI outbreaks and control measures. However, the Service is forecasting a recovery in South Korean poultry meat production in the second half of 2022.

Badboo | Bigstock
Badboo | Bigstock

For the first six months of 2022, chicken production in South Korea was 1.7% lower year-on-year. At just over 494.2 million birds, output was held back as result of reduced numbers of broiler breeders, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). The corresponding figure for the previous year was almost 500.9 million meat chickens.

FAS attributes the lower number of parent stock to the previous destruction of 4.7 million hatching eggs due to HPAI outbreaks and control measures. However, the Service is forecasting a recovery in South Korean poultry meat production in the second half of 2022. Strong domestic demand was expected ahead of the Chuseok holiday period in September and the soccer World Cup in November.

Over the last winter season (November 2021-April 2022), around 3.6 million chickens were culled in South Korea, according to FAS. At around 2% of the total chicken population, this was well below the figures of 26 million (15%) destroyed during the previous season.

South Korea’s most recent outbreak in commercial poultry began in April, according to the FAS report released at the end of September. Detected were cases at 47 outbreaks over the last winter season. Furthermore, 67 of the country’s wild birds tested positive for the HPAI virus.

In its report released at the end of September, FAS stated that the disease appeared to be under control in South Korea.

With the H5N1 HPAI virus serotype continuing to circulate widely in Europe, North America and elsewhere, the nation’s agriculture ministry announced a stepping up of disease control measures already in September.

According to Yonhap news agency, the ministry is introducing a “special quarantine period” to run from this month until February of next year. As well as more intensive surveillance of poultry farms and wild birds, disinfection and vaccination will be extended. 

New outbreak on Philippines poultry farm

Around 81,000 poultry have recently been culled on a farm in southwestern Mindanao in mid-September as a result of an HPAI infection. This was according to a report from the Philippines News Agency in mid-September. Affected premises is located in the province of South Cotabato in the Soccsksargan region.

With the previous most recent cases officially recorded at the end of August, the Philippines has enjoyed only a brief hiatus from the disease.

In September, the country’s veterinary authority officially recorded a further 25 HPAI outbreaks. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) notification, these started between July 11 and August 24 this year. 

All were on the northern main island of Luzon in provinces belonging to the regions of Central Luzon, Cagayan Valley and Cordillera Administrative Region.

As well as one market, cases were detected in a village flock and seven backyards. Also affected were 14 farms — eight with quail, three with laying hens, two mixed flocks and one with ducks. Largest of the egg units had more than 58,300 hens, while there were 24,810 birds at one of the commercial quail premises.

Since the H5N1 HPAI virus variant was first detected on Luzon in January of this year, the authorities have informed WOAH about 177 outbreaks in poultry. More than 1.6 million birds on the island have been directly impacted through mortality or culling.

HPAI situation elsewhere in Asia

For the first time since October of last year, the H5N1 HPAI virus has been detected in birds in Chelyabinsk. This is according to a recent notification from the Russian veterinary authority to WOAH.

Source of the infection is unknown, but around 90 of the geese and chickens belonging to a village in this region in the Urals federal district showed symptoms of the infection in mid-August.

In Russia’s Far Eastern federal district, the outbreak series has been closed in the Magadan region.

First infections with the H5N1 variant were detected in July. Affected were around 7,800 poultry on a farm, more than 7,600 of which died. Remaining birds were culled, and no further cases have been reported in the area.

Japan has registered its first case this season of HPAI linked to the same virus serotype. Testing positive was a wild falcon in a city in Kanagawa. This prefecture is in the Kanto region on the country’s largest island, Honshu.

Previously, the national veterinary authority had declared to WOAH the closure of last season’s HPAI outbreak series. These had involved around 450 cases in wildlife at almost 100 locations between January and May of 2022. Birds tested positive for H5 or H5N1 virus serotypes. Among the cases were more than 400 crows.

In February of this year, 15 crows found dead in Nepal tested positive for the H5N1 virus variant. With no further cases since that time, the national veterinary agency has also declared to WOAH that the disease event is closed.

Last but not least, China’s animal health agency has closed an HPAI event that started in December of 2016. According to the official report to WOAH, no further cases of the H5N8 HPAI infection have been detected since April of 2017. Deaths of around 120 swans at locations in Shanxi and Hubei were attributed to HPAI. 

New human influenza case in China

In mid-September, the Centre of Health Protection — part of the government of Hong Kong reported a further human infection with the avian influenza A(H5N6) in mainland China. 

The case involved a six-year-old girl from Nanning in Guangxi province. Her symptoms began at the end of July, and she was admitted to hospital on August 3. The girl’s condition was described as “serious.” Previously, she was known to have visited a live bird market, and to have had contact with poultry.

According to this source, 80 human cases linked to this virus have been confirmed in China since 2014.

To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.

Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.

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