Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 1/3/17

The financial impact and spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is showing few signs of slowing down more than two months after the first confirmed reports of several strains of the virus in Asia and Europe.

Authorities in South Korea announced that the worst outbreak in that nation’s history has cost an estimated $830 million and has involved the culling of more than 30 million chickens and ducks, according to local reports. Korea’s Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said there may be additional outbreaks, although the number of new daily cases has slowed, indicating that the spread “has almost been brought under control,” reported the Korea Times. Quarantine activities and continuous checking of affected areas will continue, the report added. 

Meanwhile, local officials in France said this week that a new outbreak of H5N8 bird flu was confirmed near the western town of Niort, bringing the total number of outbreaks to more than 80, according to a report from Reuters. Most of the outbreaks in France had been limited to the southwest region of the country.

Across the English Channel, the Irish Farmers Association is calling on a ban on all visits to poultry farms to supplement biosecurity measures that already are in place, according to a report on the Independent News & Media website. The confirmation of a case of HPAI in a wild duck in Wexford County last week put regional farmers on high alert last week, the report added.

Separately, officials said a flock of chickens and ducks were culled after H5N8 was confirmed at a property in Pontyberem, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The site was not a farm or a commercial poultry property, according to WalesOnline.

Finally, officials in Scotland reported the first confirmed incident of H5N8 infection in the current outbreak and three other cases were confirmed in Somerset, Leicestershire and Gloucestershire, England, as the virus spreads through the United Kingdom. All three infections involved wild birds and local officials are calling on farmers and others to report any dead wild swans, geese ducks or gulls they may come across, according to a report in The Scottish Farmer.

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