Korea to declare itself bird flu-free this week

Published : Aug 17, 2016 - 13:25 Updated : Aug 17, 2016 - 13:45

South Korea is to declare itself free of bird flu later this week as it has not reported any confirmed cases of the virus for the past three months, the government said Wednesday.

The declaration slated for Thursday is in accordance with guidelines set by the World Organization for Animal Health and follows detailed tests conducted on 11,738 poultry farms throughout the country in the past three months, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs said.

"We've met the OIE requirements to declare ourselves avian influenza (AI) free. We will technically become a bird flu-free country as of Thursday," the ministry said in a release.

More than three months has passed without any additional confirmed cases since April 7 when the last culling, decontamination and burying of birds confirmed or suspected of having been infected with bird flu took place. The final outbreaks were last reported on the western outskirts of Seoul on April 5.

(Yonhap)

This year's AI outbreak started on March 23 and lasted for only 13 days, which is far shorter than the previous outbreak that had continued for nearly two years between January 2014 and November 2015.

The ministry said the government will keep conducting quarantine and surveillance in poultry and in wild birds, and make efforts to resume exports of poultry products to Asian countries including Singapore, which has suspended imports of South Korean eggs since 2014.

Some 7 tons of eggs, worth $14,000, were exported to Singapore in 2010. (Yonhap)