The China Post news staff--All the chickens involved in the latest outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N2 avian flu in the central county of Changhua have been culled, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday, stressing that local people will not be affected by the epidemic.
No H5N2 symptoms have been seen in any other chickens within a 3-kilometer radius of those infected sites, Huang said.
He reiterated that the avian flu's pathogenic classifications of “high” or “low” were based on the level of infectiousness among poultry, not human beings, and urged the public not to panic.
The council confirmed the first outbreak of the epidemic March 3, causing over 75,000 chickens to be culled in Tainan, southern Taiwan and in Changhua County, central Taiwan.
So far, outbound shipments of NT$700 million (US$23.76 million) worth of poultry products have been banned by Taiwan's trade partners, as Taiwan has been listed as an infected region.
Poultry meat is one of Taiwan's top poultry-related exports, with annual export value of between NT$360 million and NT$370 million.
Other exports that may be affected by the recent outbreaks include preserved eggs, salted duck eggs, raw eggs and pet birds.
Also yesterday, Kuo Chou-tzer, director of Changhua County's animal health inspection and disease control center, said that operators of the three poultry farms won't be fined because they didn't intentionally hide the infection of H5N2 avian flu at their farms.
Kuo said that the chickens died after, not before, they were transported to the poultry market.
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